HCB South Tyrol Alperia officially announces that the services of the American striker Cole Schneider have been secured for the 2025/26 season. The 34-year-old, who comes to over 800 missions and almost 600 points in the American Hockey League (AHL) and six NHL games in his career, moves to Bolzano after completing his first European season in Norway. There he won the championship with Storhamar and became top scorer of the league with 74 points in 56 games (38 goals, 36 assists). The squad is complete for the 2025/26 season.
Schneider is a versatile striker who can play both as a wing and as a center. It brings physicality, speed, game intelligence and a pronounced torree – qualities that have always made him one of the best scorers of his teams across his entire career.
“It is difficult to put in words how happy my family and I are to become part of the reality in Bolzano,” explains Schneider. “Since the HCB became an option, the club was at the top of my list. You would be crazy to reject an offer of a team with such a passionate fan base in such a beautiful city. I have already played with and against some of my new teammates, and it is clear how competitive we can be able to win the championship.”
career
Born on August 26, 1990 in Williamsville, state of New York, Schneider visited the University of Connecticut, where he completed two seasons in the NCAA college league. Due to his strong performance, he became the third player in the history of the university, who incredibly signed an NHL contract. In 2012 he was contracted by the Ottawa Senators with a two -year entry contract and then gave his professional debut in the AHL at the Binghamton Senators. There he stayed for four seasons and collected 191 points in 259 games.
On February 27, 2016, he was transferred to the Buffalo Sabres as part of a seven-player trader. He ended the season with the Rochester American, but previously completed his NHL debut on April 8th. In the following season he came to four other NHL operations, but mainly played for the Americans again. In 2017 he signed as Free Agent at the New York Rangers and was assigned to her AHL team, the Hartford Wolf Pack-there he was also appointed captain.
Thanks to a consistently strong performance and regular scorer yield, Schneider switched to the organization of Nashville Predators in early 2019, but continued to play in the AHL for the Milwaukee Admirals. There he scored 22 points in 24 games of the regular season. Due to the pandemic, he had to leave Milwaukee temporarily and signed a one -year contract with the Texas Stars, where he again received the captain’s armband and ended up in third place on the team in the team with 11 goals and 17 assists in 36 games. He then returned to the Admirals for two more seasons and ended his AHL career in 2023/24 at the Chicago Wolves. His record in the AHL: 805 games, 251 goals, 338 assists.
In the summer of 2024, Schneider ventured to Europe for the first time and signed the Norwegian team Storhamar. There he led his team to the championship – initially as the top scorer of the main round with 64 points in 45 games (33 goals, 31 assists), then with 5 goals and 5 assists in the playoffs. In the final, Storhamar clearly won 4-0 against the Stavanger Oilers. Schneider also made his debut in the Champions Hockey League and collected 4 points in 4 games.
www.hcb.net, Image: HCB/Vanna Antonello
