- Wild sign defenseman Roman Schmidt to a one-year, two-way contract
- Deal pays $850,000 in the NHL and $100,000 in the AHL, with Schmidt an RFA again next summer
- Read below for the full breakdown on the physical blueliner’s path to Minnesota
The Wild added another body to their blue line on Tuesday.
Minnesota signed defenseman Roman Schmidt to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal carries a league-minimum $850,000 cap hit at the NHL level and pays $100,000 if he lands in the minors.
Here’s the paperwork from PuckPedia:
Schmidt hits restricted free agency again when the contract runs out, and he still won’t have arbitration rights. He was an RFA this time around after his three-year entry-level deal finally expired. That contract slid its first two seasons because he stayed in the Ontario Hockey League after signing, so he didn’t start his pro career until the back half of 2023-24.
Standing six-foot-five and 225 pounds, the 23-year-old is built to defend. Tampa Bay took him in the third round of the 2021 draft, and he spent his early years in the Lightning system before things got busy last season.
He bounced around. The Lightning shipped him to Philadelphia for Ethan Samson in December, then the Flyers flipped him to Minnesota at the deadline for Boris Katchouk. Three organizations in one year is a lot to ask of a young defenseman.
The numbers took a hit along the way. He managed just three assists in 48 AHL games across the three stops, though two of those points came in 19 games with the Iowa Wild after the deadline trade.
Not much else has changed for the Wild this summer. Minnesota grabbed Blake Coleman and Olli Maatta from Calgary, signed Maxim Shabanov, and re-signed Daemon Hunt to a one-year deal. Schmidt slots in as organizational depth on a roster with a little over $1.1 million in cap space left.
