Schmidt sharing playoff knowledge with young Mammoth entering 1st round

SALT LAKE CITY -- Nate Schmidt is no stranger to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The 34-year-old Utah Mammoth defenseman is about to play his 100th playoff game in what will be his ninth trip to the postseason with a fifth team. So he knows plenty about what he called “the emotional roller coaster of the playoffs” on Friday.

“Score a goal, you're going to win the whole thing,” he said. “Give one up, feel like you're going to lose the whole thing. But that's the exciting part about it. That's what makes it so fun. That's the reason why every year, everyone always talks a little bit more about how awesome the Stanley Cup Playoffs are.”

After winning the Stanley Cup for the first time last season with the Florida Panthers, Schmidt is one of five Cup champions that the young Mammoth players will be looking to when Utah visits the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 1 of the Western Conference First Round on Sunday (10 p.m. ET; Utah16, SCRIPPS, ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC). 

The other Mammoth players who have won the Cup are defensemen Ian Cole (Pittsburgh Penguins, 2016 and 2017) and Mikhail Sergachev (Tampa Bay Lightning, 2020 and 2021), forward Kevin Stenlund (Panthers, 2024) and goalie Vitek Vanecek (Panthers, 2025). 

Utah is making its first playoff appearance in its second season.

“I spoke with guys that might not have much experience with it, but sometimes being naive, ignorance is bliss in some of those situations,” Schmidt said. “But I just said, ‘Listen, it's so much fun, slow it down, enjoy it. It goes by fast, and you never know when you're going to have another chance to be back here. So just try to soak it all in.’”

This isn’t the first time Schmidt, a 13-season veteran, is on a team making its playoff debut. He was a part of the Golden Knights in their inaugural season, when they reached the 2018 Stanley Cup Final and lost to the Washington Capitals in five games.

Now he’ll be heading back to Las Vegas to open this series.

“It's a rowdy atmosphere. It's fun. It's exciting,” said Schmidt, who played three seasons (2017-20) for the Golden Knights. “I look at it as like a positive. It's so much fun to be a part of. You want that. I'd much rather it be deafeningly loud than getting incredibly quiet, so I think it's going to be a fun Game 1. 

“A lot of times the guys are going to look around and the bench is just going to be rumbling. The music's going to be playing, you know, warmups, all the stuff that they’ve got going on. It's a show. They do a great job.”

In addition to the Panthers and Golden Knights, Schmidt has played in the postseason with the Capitals and Winnipeg Jets. 

Schmidt had 22 points (five goals, 17 assists) in 82 games this season, his most points since he had 32 (four goals, 28 assists) in 77 games with the Jets in 2021-22. As he gets ready to face his former team, he knows it will be critical to slow down the Vegas offense.

“They have a lot of guys that like to carry it, a lot of guys that can make plays inside the zone if you allow them the time and space,” Schmidt said. “I think this series is going to be indicative of that; who's going to be able to slow down the other team's speed.” 

It will be a test for the Mammoth (43-33-6), who are the first wild card in the West, but Schmidt is confident that his team has what it takes to make some noise in the playoffs. They’ll try to do so beginning against the Golden Knights (39-26-17), the No. 1 seed in the Pacific Division. 

“We deserve to be here and we're a good team,” Schmidt said. “We can put pressure on teams and continue to roll over them and roll onto them. … We've shown that this year, when we want to do it and when we're good at doing it, it's tough to play against.”