The first period of Nick Schneider’s final Western Hockey League game perfectly summed up how his only season with the Calgary Hitmen played out.
A young, inexperienced team took five minor penalties and hung their graduating netminder out to dry against the Edmonton Oil Kings, allowing the third-worst power play unit to tee up one-timers from the faceoff dot and tap-ins from the front of the net. Before Schneider could even yell uncle, the Oil Kings lit him up for five power play markers.
It was a torturous ending to a successful career.
Playing daily in front of Calgary Flames’ staff on the first year of his entry-level contract, Schneider experienced a lot of painful nights for the Hitmen.
It isn’t expected, but assumed that 20-year-olds in the WHL will dominate the competition. They are typically players who have experienced years of grueling bus rides, know their way around the league and are supposed to feast against younger competition.
Domination is even more anticipated when the 20-year-old has a National Hockey League contract in his back pocket. There is less pressure on their future than other 20-year-olds that have been passed over in the draft several times.
But domination wouldn’t be the verb of use to describe Schneider’s season.
Resilient, durable and misunderstood, would be a couple more words that could more accurately paint the picture of Schneider’s performance in Hitmen colours.
At times, Schneider looked the part of Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai: going up against rifle and machine-gun fire in the final battle, while only bearing swords and bow and arrows, fighting desperately only to inevitably lose in the end.
The Hitmen were young on the back end this season and never provided much help to their goaltender. After the Jake Bean trade, the Hitmen didn’t skate a blue liner over the age of 18, as Schneider was exposed to the fourth-most shots in the league (1,866).
But that’s exactly why new GM Jeff Chynoweth brought in the traveled netminder.
When the Hitmen acquired Schneider last off season, they expected him to carry the load for a young team that was directionless entering their 23rd season, stuck somewhere between conference contenders and basement-dwellers.
“When the new front office traded for me, we spoke about how this was going to be a younger team and that I was going to play a lot more,” said Schneider. “I knew it was going to be a challenge, but I was looking forward to it. I ended up being in a lot of situations out on the ice that I never had to deal with before.”
It only took a fourth-round pick in the 2019 WHL Bantam Draft to pry the Leduc, AB product away from the Medicine Hat Tigers.
Schneider was just one move that saw the Hitmen completely gut their goaltending unit from the season before. It was the first indication of massive change that would consume the Hitmen dressing room in the wake of the management and head coaching changes.
“We brought him in expecting to ride him and we turned him into a work horse,” said Hitmen goaltending coach and former NHL puck stopper Jason LaBarbera. “He worked his butt off for us and did great at keeping his body healthy.”
And ride him they did. Schneider went out and reset the Hitmen record book, setting franchise highs for appearances (61), minutes played (3,491) and saves (1,615). He also appeared in 14 back-to-back performances.
Arriving at Hitmen camp last fall, Schneider brought with him a little more than 7,600 minutes of WHL experience, making him the only goalie on the depth chart with more than one second of time in the league. He was also set to play his final season in front of the management crew that signed him during his 18-year-old season.
“We had a former scout at the time who just got on with the Flames and he said that Nick played well at camp and was one of the hardest workers they saw,” said Tigers Assistant Coach Joe Frazer. “We weren’t too surprised to see Nick head to Stockton at the end of the season. He got some valuable pro time in and I think it really helped his game going forward.”
In his brief stint as an injury fill-in with the Stockton Heat of the American Hockey League, Schneider went 4-5 with a 3.92 goals against average and .876 save percentage.
Returning to the WHL the following season, Schneider continued to be a regular at the Flames’ developmental camp, the Young Stars tourney in Penticton and regular training camp.
This season, Schneider had as good of a shot as any to be placed in the Flames’ system, but with a log jam between the pipes across all levels, Flames’ brass thought the safest move was to keep him in the WHL for one more year of seasoning.
“We have a wealth of goalies in our system. Anytime you look at prospects, you want to give them the opportunity to play in as many games as possible,” said Flames Assistant General Manager Brad Pascall. “We thought that sending him back for his 20-year-old season was the best way to enhance his development.”
At the top of the Flames’ goalie pile is the 35-year-old veteran Mike Smith, who has one more year on his contract after this season. Behind him is David Rittich, who broke into the NHL this past season and although he is a restricted free agent after this season, he appears to have a job as Smith’s backup next season. The next man up is Jon Gillies with 34 appearances with the Stockton Heat. This season as a 24-year-old, he is 14-14-3 with three shutouts, with a 2.58 goals against average and .915 save percentage. Gillies also cracked the NHL ranks this season and appeared in seven games.
By moving Eddie Lack to the New Jersey Devils this season, the Flames opened up playing time in the minors for a highly touted prospect in Tyler Parsons.
Parsons, who is the same age as Schneider, backstopped the London Knights to the 2015-16 Memorial Cup and spent time with the Heat and Kansas City Mavericks of the ECHL this season. After a poor first two weeks as a pro, Parsons found his game, posting an 11-10 record with the Heat in 23 games to go with a .905 save percentage and 3.06 goals against average. It is likely that Parsons and Gillies will battle for the starting job in Stockton next fall.
Mason McDonald, for the most part, was the other goaltender sharing duties with Parsons in Kansas City. McDonald, 21, is wrapping up his second year as a pro and has played 53 of his 58 games in the Flames’ organization at the ECHL level and has yet to post a save percentage above .900.
With the farm systems of the Flames still operating and trying to position themselves for a playoff spot, it came as a bit of a surprise to hear that Schneider had been called up to Stockton the morning after his final WHL game.
“He played well at Stockton when we had him as an 18-year-old. It was good to see him at that level. We talk at times throughout the season and it’s good to see him still get excited about the possibility at playing at that level despite his numbers this year,” said Flames Goaltending Coach Jordan Sigalet.
The numbers aren’t flattering. Schneider led the WHL with 30 losses, and finished up with a .885 save percentage and 3.70 goals against average. He failed to record a shutout for the second-straight season. The only time he produced a save percentage above the .900-threshold was during his 16-year-old season with the Regina Pats and Tigers. He only recorded three shutouts in 201 WHL appearances.
“The numbers he posted this year absolutely do not reflect how well he played for us this year. They were more of a reflection of who we were as a team this season,” said LaBarbera. “He played 61 games this year and that’s a testament to who he is as a player.”
When the Hitmen won, Schneider was largely responsible and often found himself skating out after the game as either the first or second star. When the Hitmen lost, the blame could easily be placed on several shoulders before landing on Schneider’s.
Schneider was pulled seven times this season, four of which came against non-playoff teams. January was a particularly poor month for Schneider, who was lifted five times and produced his worst monthly save percentage (.870) and second-worst goals against, 3.69.
Not ideal when trying to impress general managers at the next level.
“I tried hard this year. Sometimes I wasn’t consistent as I would have liked to be, but that’s part of the ups and downs that go on during a season. It was a good challenge for me,” said Schneider.
Lucky for Schneider, he had the undivided attention of a former goaltender who could relate to the prospect’s struggles in LaBarbera, who kept him from getting frustrated during a trying season.
“You can look at (this season) however you want. For me, it was just an opportunity to play a lot of minutes, get a lot of shots and play in some different situations. In the end, all of this will make me a better goalie than I was before,” said Schneider.
Sharing a hallway, conference room and kitchen with the Hitmen, Pascall and other front office members of the Flames didn’t have to go far to get opinions on Schneider.
“We were in regular communication with the Hitmen all year and we would talk on a fairly regular basis about their team, Nick, over-age players and any other draft-eligible prospects,” said Pascall. “We knew they were going through a bit of a rebuilding season and we thought he played extremely well given the circumstances and handled a lot of minutes. We think it was a good step for him.”
With 19 games remaining on the Heat’s slate as they push for the final playoff spot in the Pacific division, Schneider is sure to rack up even more minutes on an already taxed body to end the season.
“Barbs kept telling me that it’s a business and told me to focus on myself. He said that if I keep getting better, that’s the best way to make sure I still have a job. So that’s my goal now wherever I go, go and work on improving my game and be the best I can be,” said Schneider.
According to the Flames, his skills are on track with where they were hoping he would be after this season.
“He’s such an efficient goalie. He has a strong skillset; he moves well and has good positioning. We want to work on finding more consistency in his game; if he lets in a bad goal, to not let that snowball,” said Sigalet. “He doesn’t like to lose, he is a coachable kid and we think he has a lot of upside with us.”
As unpredictable as this season was for the Hitmen, Schneider now enters a world of even more unpredictability. Perhaps the greatest skill he developed this winter was the ability to roll with whatever comes next. He was traded three times before his 21st birthday, lived away from home since the age of 16 and just endured the fourth-worst season in Hitmen history. Whatever stability comes next will be a welcome sign for the goaltending prospect who has already been through a lot.
“There was lots of learning done this season. I was fortunate to play in a lot of games in the Saddledome and work with some great coaches. I am grateful for my time and I’m excited to start my next journey, wherever that is,” said Schneider.
