Schmidt, Vaněček Receive Stanley Cup Rings

On Dec. 9, Utah Mammoth defenseman Nate Schmidt and goaltender Vítek Vaněček had a chance to celebrate their 2025 Stanley Cup win one final time. The Mammoth players joined their former Florida Panthers teammates for dinner and finally received their Stanley Cup rings.

“It was great to see them, that was a good playoffs with them so it’s always great to see them,” Vaněček said of the dinner. “It’s (the) first time touching the ring. I put it (on) actually opposite, so they told me I have to go the other way. It’s really heavy. It’s beautiful.”

Vaněček was traded to the Panthers in March to serve as a backup to veteran goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. He played seven regular season games, before backing up Bobrovsky throughout the playoffs.

Schmidt signed a one-year contract with Florida last season and became a key part of the team’s Stanley Cup run. The defenseman had 19 points (5G, 14A) through 80 regular season games. In the postseason, Schmidt had three goals and nine assists for 12 points through 23 playoff games. Schmidt was the first player Panthers Captain Aleksander Barkov handed the Cup to in the celebrations.

Now, seven months later Schmidt was able to hold his ring for the first time.

“It’s pretty surreal to see it actually in person,” Schmidt recounted. “You see this stuff online at the beginning of the year. I tried not to look at it truthfully, I wanted to have it be a surprise, but it was really tough … it’s way bigger in person. It covers up at least three of my fingers.”

Schmidt’s favorite moment with his new piece of hardware? Showing his three-year-old son Harvey.

“Probably the greatest moment is when I got to show Harvey, my son, when I got home,” Schmidt smiled. “He was pretty excited. I think he might have been more excited than I was. I was pretty excited, but he was pretty excited … I put it on his hand, and he started walking around the house and I was like ‘please don’t drop it.’ It was great. My wife got a really nice pendant as well. I told (Harvey) it’s the Schmidt family ring so he knows that he can go look at it and put it on, but it’s not for banging around.”

In addition to their time together in Florida, Schmidt and Vaněček played together in the Washington Capitals organization. Celebrating this success together, with their new team, is an unique experience.

“It’s nice to do it with Schmidt,” Vaněček smiled. “…it’s a special moment and I can be here with him right now. He’s a great teammate. He’s a good guy and he’s funny and (talks) a lot so it’s always good to be with him.”

“He’s a good man,” Schmidt said of Vaněček. “A guy that’s quite a happy person. He and I get along quite well. To be able to share it with somebody else too is more fun. Obviously it’s cool to get it yourself but one of the most fun things is to be able to share with other people and for us to be able to do that moment together, it enhanced my experience for sure.”

Now that the pair of Mammoth players have wrapped their celebrations of this summer’s victory, Schmidt is eager to win again.

“It’s too much fun not to do it again,” Schmidt grinned. “It’s intoxicating that feeling of something that you worked for all year, and for everybody that you’ve worked with. To see the elation it brings, and joy that it does, not only to the guys, but to everyone that puts in all the work around it … that’s the extra part of it that I really enjoy and that’s what I want to see again in my life.

“Harvey, my son, got to drink out of the Cup, my daughter wasn’t old enough so that’s my new motivation will be to make sure she can get a sip out of it as well.”