Nick Schmaltz

Beginning in the 2014–15 season, Schmaltz followed his older brother into playing college ice hockey for the North Dakota Fighting Hawks.[9] He began his freshman season on a hot streak, named the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) Rookie of the Month for October after leading all freshmen with six points in as many games.[10] On February 23, 2015, Schmaltz was named the NCHC Rookie of the Week for assisting on two goals of the Fighting Hawks' 3–0 shutout win over Western Michigan.[11] Schmaltz recorded five goals, 21 assists, and a +4 plus-minus rating in 35 games.[12] The Fighting Hawks were the NCHC regular-season champions for the 2014–15 season, and Schmaltz, who had four goals and 11 assists in 20 conference games, was named to the NCHC All-Rookie Team.[13] North Dakota played in the 2015 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament, where they were eliminated in the Frozen Four by Jack Eichel and Boston University.[14] Schmaltz had no points in the tournament.[15]

Returning to North Dakota for the 2015–16 season, Schmaltz centered a line with Drake Caggiula and Brock Boeser, a trio referred to as the "CBS line".[16] He was named the NCHC Player of the Month for November after recording two goals and 13 assists in eight games, including five multi-point outings.[17] With five goals and 19 assists in 19 conference games, Schmaltz was an All-NCHC honorable mention at the end of the season.[18] Altogether, he had 11 goals and 46 points in 37 games, third on the team behind his linemates Caggiula and Boeser.[19] The Fighting Hawks tied with Denver for third place in the 2016 NCHC Tournament,[20] while Schmaltz, who scored two of the team's three goals in the Frozen Faceoff, was named to the All-Tournament Team.[21][22] North Dakota once again played in the NCAA Tournament, where they faced Denver in the Frozen Four semifinals. Deadlocked at 2–2 with 60 seconds remaining in regulation, Schmaltz scored the game-winning goal, with North Dakota winning the game 4–2 shortly after on an empty net goal from Rhett Gardner.[23] He added an assist in North Dakota's 5–1 victory over Quinnipiac, which gave the Fighting Hawks their first NCAA championship title since 2000.[24] After his sophomore season, Schmaltz elected to leave North Dakota and signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Blackhawks.[25] In 75 games across two collegiate seasons, he recorded 16 goals and 56 assists.[26]

Several members of the Blackhawks' forward core from the 2015–16 season, such as Teuvo Teräväinen and Andrew Shaw, could not return to the team the next year due to NHL salary cap limitations, giving younger players like Schmaltz an opportunity for a larger role in their rookie season.[27][28] Schmaltz made his NHL debut in the first game of the 2016–17 season, a 5–2 loss to the St. Louis Blues.[29] He scored his first NHL goal three days later, opening scoring in a 5–3 win over the Nashville Predators that was won on Richard Panik's hat-trick.[30] His offensive output was negligible from then on, with only one goal and three assists in 26 games, and on December 4, 2016, the Blackhawks sent a slumping Schmaltz to their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs.[31] He added six goals and three assists there before he was called back up to Chicago on January 14 as a replacement for the ill Artem Anisimov.[32] Playing on the top offensive line with Panik and Jonathan Toews, Schmaltz's performance improved during the second half of the season,[33][34] and he finished with six goals and 28 points in 61 regular-season NHL games.[35] Schmaltz made his postseason debut with the Blackhawks in the 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs, where Chicago scored only three goals in a four-game sweep by the Nashville Predators.[36]

Schmaltz had a three-point outing in the first game of the 2017–18 season, with two goals and an assist in the Blackhawks' 10–1 rout of the Pittsburgh Penguins.[37] Otherwise, he had a slow start to the season, with only four goals through his first 25 games. That changed on December 10, when Schmaltz's goal against the Arizona Coyotes led him on a streak in which he scored eight times in 13 games.[38] On December 29, Anisimov was placed on injured reserve, and Schmaltz took his place as the Blackhawks' second line center, with Ryan Hartman and Patrick Kane on the wings. That combination proved successful for all parties: 37 games into the season, Schmaltz had equaled his 28 points from the previous season. He assisted on six of Kane's first 17 goals, and Kane assisted on seven of Schmaltz's 10 goals.[39] On February 21, Schmaltz scored the shootout win in what ended up being a 3–2 win over the Ottawa Senators.[40] Schmaltz's major development over the course of his sophomore season was to gain confidence with the puck rather than passing to more experienced players like Kane and Toews. By March 10, his 46 points were tied with Toews for second on the Blackhawks, behind only Kane's 64 points.[41] Although the Blackhawks missed the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time since the 2007–08 season, finishing 19 points behind the Colorado Avalanche in the race for the second Western Conference wild card spot, Schmaltz had a successful season, finishing with 21 goals and 52 points in 78 games.[42]

While Schmaltz had previously faced his older brother Jordan, a defenseman for the St. Louis Blues, in the preseason and AHL, the brothers did not meet in a regular-season NHL game until October 13, 2018, when the Blackhawks defeated the Blues 4–3 in overtime.[43] He did not score until the eighth game of the 2018–19 season, shortly after coach Joel Quenneville pushed Schmaltz to the left wing and put Anisimov at center.[44] Schmaltz struggled to produce offensively even after that, with only two goals and nine assists in 23 games with the Blackhawks.[45]

On November 25, 2018, the Blackhawks traded Schmaltz to the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for forwards Dylan Strome and Brendan Perlini.[46] He was placed on Arizona's top line, centering Clayton Keller and Alex Galchenyuk, and scored five points in as many games after the trade.[47] He ultimately produced five goals and 14 points in 17 games until December 30, after which the Coyotes announced that he would miss the remainder of the season with a lower-body injury.[48] Schmaltz later revealed that his knee had been bothering him for a long period of time and that he could not name a specific moment that had caused the injury, which required a season-ending surgery.[49]

On March 30, 2019, with Schmaltz set to become a restricted free agent that July, the Coyotes signed him to a seven-year, $40.95 million contract extension.[50][51] He fell to the second line for the Coyotes 2019–20 season, reunited with Christian Dvorak on one wing and with newcomer Conor Garland on the other.[52] By December 12, Schmaltz led the Coyotes with 22 points, including 17 assists and two game-winning goals.[53] By the time that the 2019–20 NHL season was suspended in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Schmaltz had a team-leading 45 points (11 goals and 34 assists), including four shootout goals. Schmaltz said in an interview that he believed he "started off really well ... I didn't love my game in the middle of the season so much, but I felt toward the end I was trending in the right direction."[54] When the NHL returned to play for the 2020 Stanley Cup playoffs in Edmonton, Schmaltz was one of 31 players invited to join the quarantine bubble.[55] After receiving a hit to the head during an exhibition game against the Vegas Golden Knights,[56] however, Schmaltz missed the entirety of the Coyotes' postseason run, which came to an end when they were defeated by the Colorado Avalanche in five games of the Western Conference First Round.[57]

The 2020–21 NHL season meant a reunion for Schmaltz and his college linemate Drake Caggiula, who signed with the Coyotes that offseason.[58] Beginning at the start of February, Schmaltz played on an offensive line with Garland and Keller.[59] Head coach Rick Tocchet nicknamed the trio the "Short Leash line" for their presumed defensive liabilities despite their offensive production.[60] Within four games of playing together, the line had a combined 15 points, with Schmaltz recording two goals and five points in that span.[61] On March 27, the NHL Department of Player Safety awarded Schmaltz a $5,000 fine for dangerously pushing San Jose Sharks defenseman Radim Simek into the boards the day prior.[62] On May 3, with three regular-season games left to play for the Coyotes, Schmaltz was hit in the head during pregame warmups by a puck that bounced off the crossbar of the goal net.[63] He was assisted off the ice and missed that night's game with an upper-body injury. Unexpectedly playing without him, the Coyotes lost 3–2 to the Los Angeles Kings that night,[64] a loss which mathematically eliminated them from the 2021 Stanley Cup playoffs.[65] Schmaltz finished the season with 10 goals and 32 points.[66] That July, he was one of 11 players that the Coyotes chose to protect from being taken by the Seattle Kraken in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft.[67]

The Coyotes underwent a major roster overhaul prior to the 2021–22 season, with Schmaltz part of a core group of young players that the team wished to build around.[68] The team suffered a number of injuries early in the season, and Schmaltz was sidelined with an upper body injury after only six games.[69] He returned to the lineup on December 11 and scored his first goal of the season two days later against the Philadelphia Flyers.[70][71] On March 5, 2022, the day after ending the Colorado Avalanche's four-game winning streak with a late goal,[72] Schmaltz became the first player in franchise history to record a seven-point game when he recorded two goals and five assists in an 8–5 comeback win over the Ottawa Senators.[73] He added another four points in the Coyotes' next game, a 9–2 blowout win over the Detroit Red Wings, and became the first player in franchise history to record 11 points in a two-game span.[74] Schmaltz finished the 2021–22 season with a career-high 23 goals, 36 assists, and 59 points.[75]