RW Cole Schwindt - Mississauga Steelheads, OHL (2019, 81st, FLA)

[Gardiner Expressway]

Don't see much discussion about this guy but he really deserves a thread (NOTE: mods please merge if there already is one).

Florida traded up to get a defensive guy with offensive upside in the 3rd round and I believe we are now seeing it. He is big at 6'3" and was tall and lanky on draft day.

Anyone watching this guy? Would be awesome if someone had seen him at the start of the season and lately and had comments on how his game has changed.

Statistically it looks very promising:

Schwindt had his second 1+2 night in a row to bring his scoring to 27+42=69 in 54gms (1.28 ppg) which is a nice bump on last year's 19+30=49 in 68gms (0.72 ppg).

He's currently 27th in OHL scoring & 28th in ppg but his season but his season splits are truly night and day...

Something really clicked for him scoring & shooting wise around game 23 judging by how his rates have changed over time.

PPG Over Time

SOG Over Time

If 1.5ppg+ is the new norm then he looks to be among top blue chip company in his age group:

Name	Pts/GP	Season	Age (Season End)
Arthur Kaliyev	1.76	2020	18.86
Morgan Frost	1.55	2018	18.98
Barrett Hayton	1.54	2019	18.90
Adam Mascherin	1.52	2017	18.92
Robert Thomas	1.49	2018	18.84
Riley Damiani	1.45	2019	19.13
Jordan Kyrou	1.42	2017	19.00
Ryan Suzuki	1.34	2020	18.94
Cliff Pu	1.33	2017	18.92
Cole Schwindt	1.28	2020	19.03
Kirill Maximov	1.23	2018	18.93
Adam Ruzicka	1.14	2018	18.99
Dmitri Sokolov	1.13	2017	19.06
Sasha Chmelevski	1.09	2018	18.91

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

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[Dread Clawz]

Yeah as a Panthers fan I love this kid. He's a faceoff ace as well. He'd be a good center prospect for any team, but he'll have a good shot coming up in Florida's system because for the forseeable future, it's Barkov and then a bunch of bottom six centers or young guys who haven't establisheed themselves yet and fighting to be full time nhlers.

 

[De Montreal]

He signed his entry level contract with the Cats earlier this month.

 

[MMC]

 

[De Montreal]

Anyone seen him play? What’s his upside? Any chances he makes it?

 

[Dread Clawz]

Anyone seen him play? What’s his upside? Any chances he makes it?

He looks primed to be an NHLer pretty soon, I think the Panthers will give him a shot within the next two seasons. Upside probably similar to Evan Rodrigues, a 3rd line type guy but can play anywhere up and down the bottom 9 and be a decent contributor.

 

[GermanSpitfire]

Traded to Calgary

 

[Rubi]

Lost brother to Charlie McAvoy

 

[Lays]

Guy is banging Overtime Megan

 

[SnuggaRUDE]

Guy is banging Overtime Megan

 

[Fig]

He looks primed to be an NHLer pretty soon, I think the Panthers will give him a shot within the next two seasons. Upside probably similar to Evan Rodrigues, a 3rd line type guy but can play anywhere up and down the bottom 9 and be a decent contributor.

If he's on par calibre wise with Ruzicka as a bottom 6 option as per post 1, I'm really damn happy with that. Anything else is gravy. Yet it seems there's some optimism he could be better than Ruzicka while having non identical, but many similar tools in the toolbox? Nice!

I don't know how the recent two year deal for Rooney affects their progression to the big club though. Most clubs aren't too worried due to injuries, but the Flames have been inexplicably healthy for the last 3-4 seasons. The kids aren't consistently able to come up and get that 9 game cup of coffee or more due to an IR shuffle.

Forward graduation wise this seems to be the order: Pelletier (LW), Phillips (RW), Ruzicka/Schwindt (C)

It'll be interesting to see what happens.

 

[Dread Clawz]

If he's on par calibre wise with Ruzicka as a bottom 6 option as per post 1, I'm really damn happy with that. Anything else is gravy. Yet it seems there's some optimism he could be better than Ruzicka while having non identical, but many similar tools in the toolbox? Nice!

I don't know how the recent two year deal for Rooney affects their progression to the big club though. Most clubs aren't too worried due to injuries, but the Flames have been inexplicably healthy for the last 3-4 seasons. The kids aren't consistently able to come up and get that 9 game cup of coffee or more due to an IR shuffle.

Forward graduation wise this seems to be the order: Pelletier (LW), Phillips (RW), Ruzicka/Schwindt (C)

It'll be interesting to see what happens.

Idk if he'll be better than Ruzicka. Ruzicka is pretty solid. He might have slightly better offensive upside, but it's not very likely he'll reach it. He'll probably be more of a 3rd line guy, with just a solid all-round game. He's always had to be very smart positionally because his first couple years in the OHL he was not a good skater.

 

[Fig]

Idk if he'll be better than Ruzicka. Ruzicka is pretty solid. He might have slightly better offensive upside, but it's not very likely he'll reach it. He'll probably be more of a 3rd line guy, with just a solid all-round game. He's always had to be very smart positionally because his first couple years in the OHL he was not a good skater.

Ah, OK. But knowing within range of Ruzicka helps a ton in figuring out what to expect and what he's worth. This info still makes me very happy.

Flames have groomed a ton of prospects to be defensively responsible (ie: Hathaway, Jankowski, Mangiapane, Dube etc.), so Schwindt seems like a good basis to work with.

Ruzicka to me just seems like he's the least defensively sound prospects we've had in recent past, so I assumed his offense would actually be higher than Schwindt at the NHL level. Ruzicka isn't well rounded, but he's package is good. I am assuming Schwindt can learn how to play 200 foot game better than Ruzicka since he's already so well rounded. Both useful players in the bottom 9 for different reasons such as to try and score that late goal to tie or to defend that last bit of play to win the game.

 

[Dread Clawz]

Ah, OK. But knowing within range of Ruzicka helps a ton in figuring out what to expect and what he's worth. This info still makes me very happy.

Flames have groomed a ton of prospects to be defensively responsible (ie: Hathaway, Jankowski, Mangiapane, Dube etc.), so Schwindt seems like a good basis to work with.

Ruzicka to me just seems like he's the least defensively sound prospects we've had in recent past, so I assumed his offense would actually be higher than Schwindt at the NHL level. Ruzicka isn't well rounded, but he's package is good. I am assuming Schwindt can learn how to play 200 foot game better than Ruzicka since he's already so well rounded. Both useful players in the bottom 9 for different reasons such as to try and score that late goal to tie or to defend that last bit of play to win the game.

Schwindt is definitely better defensively at this stage, and he's younger so he should be a far more responsible player in the NHL. Ruzicka has definitely shown he could contribute offensively at the NHL level, but Schwindt has a good shot and is pretty creative offensively for a guy you don't normally associate with a top 6 caliber prospect. Either way, you got two good likely future NHL forwards. We really liked Schwindt as a fanbase because he seems like he can be that swiss army knife type player in the not so distant future.

 

[Fig]

Schwindt is definitely better defensively at this stage, and he's younger so he should be a far more responsible player in the NHL. Ruzicka has definitely shown he could contribute offensively at the NHL level, but Schwindt has a good shot and is pretty creative offensively for a guy you don't normally associate with a top 6 caliber prospect. Either way, you got two good likely future NHL forwards. We really liked Schwindt as a fanbase because he seems like he can be that swiss army knife type player in the not so distant future.

...

these word combinations are reminiscent of several other C prospects we have in the system. I can't imagine this is a coincidence.

Well rounded prospects who have these extra facets that project to allow them to be flexible where they are slotted. Connor Zary (Well balanced; Horvat styled projection), Ilya Nikolayev (Imitates Bergeron; well rounded) and Topi Ronni (Danault or Motte style draft projection).

I wonder if the Flames specifically targeted Schwindt... Schwindt and 4th seemed pretty random at the time but in general most Flames fans were just elated we didn't get ripped off for Tkachuk without understanding what we received in return. I wonder if Schwindt was included as a specific wheel greaser for the deal now. Like the final touches and cherry on top of the whole cake.

I wonder if the Flames scouts were involved or this specific mandate is a thing that most of management is aware of for something the Flames desire to add this style of to their prospect pipeline. Interesting... my brain is nerding out now.

 

[Dread Clawz]

...

these word combinations are reminiscent of several other C prospects we have in the system. I can't imagine this is a coincidence.

Well rounded prospects who have these extra facets that project to allow them to be flexible where they are slotted. Connor Zary (Well balanced; Horvat styled projection), Ilya Nikolayev (Imitates Bergeron; well rounded) and Topi Ronni (Danault or Motte style draft projection).

I wonder if the Flames specifically targeted Schwindt... Schwindt and 4th seemed pretty random at the time but in general most Flames fans were just elated we didn't get ripped off for Tkachuk without understanding what we received in return. I wonder if Schwindt was included as a specific wheel greaser for the deal now. Like the final touches and cherry on top of the whole cake.

I wonder if the Flames scouts were involved or this specific mandate is a thing that most of management is aware of for something the Flames desire to add this style of to their prospect pipeline. Interesting... my brain is nerding out now.

It's a good way to build a team. If anything, these kind of prospects will always be in high demand in trades.