Agreed. I wouldn't count on him looking elsewhere unless he's desperate for a possible starring offensive role and it's too early for him to chase that. He's somewhat regularly paired with Luke Hughes, so he gets a regular shift with a top defenseman on the team. He's just not a PP guy right now because they can throw out a lot of talent on the blue line. It's pretty rare for the NTDP to lose guys after a single season in scenarios where it's not a mutually desired parting.
He's also going to get more opportunities sooner rather than later this year. The U18s are an average NTDP team at best and there's a serious lack of skill with their defensemen (which the U17s have in abundance), so multiple U17 defensemen are likely to be promoted (i.e. Hughes and Gallagher or Hreschuk) later this year, which is going to open up a lot of opportunities for the remaining U17 guys.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Schmidt have a similar NTDP career as a guy like John Beecher. Both big guys who came in with good hype, but get limited offensive opportunities due to playing in pretty deep birth years for their respective positions. When a bunch of guys from Beecher's U17 season were promoted, he got a bigger role and produced, and then in his U18 season his role was reduced again as all those promoted guys were back. But he still went first round given his tools and the glimpses he sometimes showed with a more prominent role. Schmidt could be a similar benefactor when teammates are promoted and if so, it'll be interesting to see how he performs.