Jim Nill & Joe McDonnell Break Down Dallas Stars 2025 NHL Draft Class, Cameron Schmidt Impressions

[Applause] overall. How did you assess your draft over the weekend?
I think we did a good job. You know, we’re picking late third round. It’s almost a fourth round pick and uh we think we got some good value. You know, time will tell in that, but uh the players we got, I know our uh our scouts were excited about him. So So that’s good.
You’ve seen obviously Joe talked a little bit about you’ve seen players like uh like Schmidt before with Logan Stanov come through, get developed in your system, and then make an impact at the NHL level. How much confidence does that give you that you can see the same thing with?
Yeah. Well, that’s that’s what’s so important to have, you know, it’s not only, you know, we talk about the process and it’s not only the drafting, but it’s what happens now. You know, like we’re right now we got players flying in here uh from previous drafts and the guys we just drafted are getting their stuff, everything together cuz they’re flying in here tomorrow to start development camp. So, now the process starts and uh we got a great staff that works on the development part. Uh the scouts do a good job of picking the players we think fit into the right system and um you know and then the we’ve had results from it. So we’re pretty comfortable with it.
How did this draft feel? Some I think some GMs had said it maybe was a little bit quieter just because of the cap going up. Not as many teams were in a crunch. Did it feel different that way?
Yeah, as far as the Yeah, as far as movement, yes, it was a little bit more quiet. Um you know, cap going up. um teams, you know, there’s always so many players, free agents and that, you know, we’re looking at our free agent list and I think four of our top five names already off it. You know, not that they’re players that we’re going to get, but there, you know, you talk about Sam Bennett signing and, you know, people signing known players. We’ve done it ourselves. You know, we, you know, Jamie Bennett signed. That’s taken players off the market and that’s happened to a lot a lot of teams.
You resigned Maverick Bort before an offer sheet could even be considered. I think a lot of people across the league talked about him as a prime candidate for one and the success last year of St. Louis doing that for a couple of guys. I guess was there any concern from you like to get that deal done so that that didn’t become a thing for you all?
Not really. I wasn’t too concerned. Um the St. lowest thing last year was a kind of a unique situation and and it’s not easy to step in and uh just start, you know, people are making it sound like these offer sheets are going to happen everywhere. It’s not going to be like that. It’s just hard. It’s hard to do. You know, you’ve got to it’s got to be the right player, the right situation. You have to have your draft picks. A lot of things have to fall in place. Um so, wasn’t we weren’t too worried about that really.
You just mentioned teams residing their own players. Where do you guys kind of stand on some of your own free agents that are still out there right now? Yeah, we’re talking uh talking to those players right now. You know, they’re they’re going to have an opportunity here July 1st if they want. They got to decide, you know, do they want to see what’s out in the market or not? That’s decision they have to make. Uh knowing that we might do the same thing once July 1 hits, we might allocate that dollar somewhere else. So, we keep in touch with them. Um kind of you get through the draft and now things settle down to free agency. You know, everything everything turns into the draft here for about four or five days. Now it’s going to shift to free agency. So we’ll have probably a little bit more conversation with those players.
How much of that communication? You guys are obviously tight against the cap. You can make moves to move it around, but how much do you communicate that to maybe a free agent that you’re talking to and saying, “Here’s what we plan. Here’s how we can make it work if you were interested.” Yeah. Well, we, you know, we got to wait till July 1 to do that. Uh, so it’s really, we’re just really communicating with our own players and, uh, just trying to get a feel for the market is what we’re trying to do.
How hard is the camp right now as far as for you guys? I think on paper it looks very tight. Yeah. Well, it’s going to be tight, but it’s like that all, you know, it’s going to be like that.
You know, I I think I mentioned it last night. You know, we we’ve got
players, you know, uh you go back to um last September, October, November, we started, that’s why we started this process. You know, it was uh Essendell had to get him signed. Jake Odener. So, you know, Jake’s going from making 4 to 8 million. That’s four million now added to your cap. Uh we Yeah. I mean, Wyatt Wy why goes to make a million to make an 84. So, he get seven. So, you know, and you know what people forget? We had a pretty unique situation because of our injuries, which we never thought were you never planning. You can’t plan for injuries. Sean goes in LTI. Muriel Hen gets injured. Lung gets injured. That changes our whole cap situation, LTI situation. And because of that, now we’re able to make some trades. That’s really that’s the only reason we get Ranton,
you know. So, and he goes when we made the trade for rent and he was $4 million on our cap. You know, half of that was eaten when he there was another trade before that that happened and half his salary which was around $9 million whatever was half of that was taken by um Carol
Carol well actually no by
Chicago. So there’s another piece to it. So when we traded for him he had cap it was only $4 million. Well now this year it’s 12. So the cap the cap has gone up, but we’ve got good players. It’s a good problem to have, I guess, is way to put it. We got good players and and they deserve to get paid what they get paid. And so that’s why we’re up against the cap. It’s uh it’s osmosis. It’s going to happen. It’s they’re good players and they deserve to get paid. Um so that’s what we’re dealing with.
Quick housekeeping question just about the the assistant coaches. I know at the time when you mentioned that uh you guys had talked and Pete wasn’t coming back, you’d said they were still at that moment in the plan. Did conversations kind of happen after that with each of those coaches with Misha and
the Misha hockey can got hold of me. you know, I’m with actually, you know, with team Canada, I’m with the Olympic team and that’s so hockey I’m in contact with Hockey Canada all the time and I know them very well and they approached us and said, you know what, we they’re changing their structure in Hockey Canada and u Misha has got a a great history with Hockey Canada going back a long time and um they they present an opportunity for him uh to become expand his coaching. you know, Misha really, if you look back in his history, u being an assistant coach, you know, it’s it was kind of a new step for him even coming here. And so, he took that on, does a great job with it. Now, it’s it’s opportunity for him to become a head coach. So, we I sat down with him and said, “Hey, Oie, Canada has approached me uh with an opportunity. What career path do you want to go?” And it’s an opportunity hard to say no to. I I said, “Mishe, I don’t want to lose you, but what an opportunity. You get to work for Hockey Canada. and he’s got a vice president role with him. He gets to work for them. Uh he’s going to help coach the world junior teams. He’s going to be head coach of the world champion men’s jump. What a great great opportunity for your resume. And um so it’s something I like I said I didn’t want to lose him but what an opportunity for him and that’s how we kind of operate here. We want if there’s an opportunity for something we’re not I don’t want to hold him back. Don’t want to hold him back. So it’s a great opportunity for him. Yeah. And same thing with spotter that conversation after days after that
after we started we started uh looking at situations possible who we’re going to hire and stuff and uh whoever we’re going to bring in needs to have a little bit of say to what they can do and there was a market out there for coaches. So I I sat down with Steve and said Steve look at there’s a market here and uh I want to give him that opportunity to talk to those teams too. I didn’t want to get stuck in a situation where boy maybe I got to make a change here and the market’s dried up. So it it worked out well for him too.
So the expectations Elaine will be here next year.
Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. He’s Yeah. Yeah. He’s he’s part of our search and uh you know I’ve interviewed Elaine just so everybody knows he’s been part of our search and deservedly so. How do you feel about the decentralized obviously a lot of different
you do? Yeah it’s you know it’s it saves a lot of travel force. You know, I just mentioned about how uh you know, we’re going from the draft and we went from a end of season almost two 3 weeks ago, maybe not that long ago, to a to a draft. Um now tomorrow we got a development camp and then running into free agency. So the logistics part I really enjoy cuz right now we’d be running to the airport in LA, getting on the red eyee, trying to get back here for development camp tomorrow and getting ready for free agency. So the logistics is great. Um, you know, a lot I think there’s a lot of kinks that got to be worked out. Um, I am an oldtime scout. I I’ve always enjoyed the drafts and that. Uh, the probably the um, uh, the communication part is a little bit harder because you’re doing over phones and over video and that, you know, as far as other teams, you know, there you can walk to a table or you’re going to see somebody in your hotel and, uh, stoke up conversations. So, that’s a little bit different. Um there’s some good things about it and some things that uh I enjoy about this the old system.
Do you think maybe that led to why it was being a little more quiet in terms of what you said movement maybe harder to make some of
Yeah. I don’t think so. You know there there was a lot of we’ve had a lot of conversation before the draft. So there’s been lots of ideas thrown around. I I just think it’s we’re getting to that point, our league’s got to the point now where there’s a lot of teams uh I don’t know what the right word is ready to take that next step and they’re keeping their players. They’re not trading their players. We’re trying to keep our players that we can under the cap system and there’s just a real shifting of the you know there’s a lot lot of teams that want to take the next step and to do that you can’t be in the past those play those teams may have traded away a lot of their players and they’re not doing it so the market is is kind of tightened up.
Last thing about July 1st you mentioned I think last night a little bit that that you don’t see that as not necessarily a hard and fast deadline for a coach. Is that also because like you said, you’re not necessarily looking at maybe making as big a moves with the cap situation. It’s not as critical to get that done.
Yeah, I’m not I’m less worried about the the the player side of for the coach. I just want to make sure I get the right coach in the right situation. So, I want to do that first. I want to make sure I do that right and I want to make sure we do July 1, right, too. So, we’ll see where it falls into place.
But how much of that is dictated by the fact that so much of your core was already signed? So, like yes,
the team is what it is essentially.
Yes. Yeah. We we we’re very fortunate. We’ve got a great core. You know, that’s why I talked about last uh September, October when we started that, you know, to get Jakeer signed up and, you know, instead of if if Jake wasn’t signed up, he’s going into last year’s deal and we’ve seen the shift in the market, goalie market. You’ve seen the shift in the uh the cap in that. What situation would we be in right now? You look at why Johnson’s situation, you look at Essendell’s situation. So, it was important to get those things done just to have our we we’ve got a good core here and and just to get that settled in and taken care was important. And then we Jamie Benz bought into what we’re doing here and uh you know trying to think who else we’ve oh Matt Dane man Matt Dashaine big signing force you know the center market isn’t very big this year. You you guys do your homework. You guys know it was important to get him signed. U and he he worked with us. It’s a it’s a deal that we’re both happy with and uh just important to get certain pieces as you mentioned our our core is pretty pretty well set you know ratnon we had a ratin from last year unfortunately had to had to lose marchment you know because of that situation but and but that’s that’s a good thing for us too and that’s nothing as I love me some marchman but it’s just part of the business
come July one the other big I guess piece of news would be your ability to resign sign Jason Robertson at that point.
Where does that slot in in in the list of things that you have to do this summer?
Yeah, we’ll approach that after July 1st. You know, he’s he’s under control for two years. Uh we we’ve got he’s got another year’s contract. So, he he’s really falls in this in this place where Jakeer and uh Lindell, those guys are in. So, we’re going to start approach that after July 1st to see where we’re at. Um you know, you guys just saw there was a new memorandum come out for the new CBA. We got to digest that. you know, how how does that change some things for us? Does it change some things for the players? They’re doing the same thing from their end. They’re they’re looking at that. So, we’ll have to kind of figure all that out, too, because that is going to come into effect uh during that time frame.
Nothing in the first, nothing in the second. It’s hard on our third round. Uh, you know, we had we think we got first round talent with him, so we were excited. you know, you wish he was was bigger, but we sort of see a a Logan Stanovven kind of guy.
How much does the fact you have a Logan or even Maverick or other smaller players who have succeeded, does that give you the, you know, I guess just the confidence that you can pick a guy like this.
Yeah. Yeah. And he needs skill, right? So, this kid has has oodles of it. So, so we were happy.
What do you like about him as far as what he does? I’ve heard speed. I’ve heard
speed speed scoring. Uh compete. I think he he has it all. Problem is he’s 5’7 and a half. So, but so is Logan.
Yeah.
Yeah.
As a third round,
they play bigger.
As a third round pick, is there a timeline for him that stretches out a little bit further or not? Really?
No, I don’t think so. No, it’s going to be up to him. With limited uh top end talent available to you all because of your draft position, how do you approach um the picks in the later rounds? Is it just best player available? Do you look at the needs of the organization because I noticed you guys didn’t pick any defenseman this year. So,
yeah. No, no needs. It’s just uh you know, I have my guys and I I asked them, you know, what do you what do you think? What do you like? So, and that’s we just go for it. Anything really surprise you in this draft, whether it’s you guys or just in general?
A lot of big defenseman early on for sure. Uh so, it was, you know, interesting in that way. We didn’t get any. But can you go through the next however what is that? Third, fourth, fourth, fifth, sixth. You got
Well, you got You might have to help me out here. Man’s goose, 6’5 goalie. Um, you know, he’s what you’re looking for uh for a goalie. Now, NHL goalies are huge and and he moves well. So, we got him.
Ensky.
Oh, good second half of the season with him. Had a slow start, but second half he took off. So, uh, again, the the Western guys really pounded the table for him. So, so it was good.
Yi, he’s got a Finn.
Yokei. Yeah, the Finn. Uh, hardworking compete off the charts. That’s that’s what he is.
And Pquette, I think it’s your last Pquette. 19-year-old kid. Uh, scored 37 last year. Going to G. Going to be the leader there. So, so it’s uh he’s older, but but it’s going to work out for him. Shark.
Sharky again. high compete off the charts. Shane Turner uh really really beat the table for him. So, he’s going to be exciting. He’s from what I hear about him, too. I just saw him video, but he uh he he’s a derber, so it’ll be fun.
After last season, was it good to have as many picks as you had? And did you have was it nice to be able to bang the table this year?
Yeah. Yeah. You know, you need picks, so it’s uh it’s just the way it works out. And you know, we’re a good team, so you know, Jim could could move picks. We we think we have a lot of lot of kids in the system, so you know, you’re able to do that.
Yeah. [Music]

Watch as Jim Nill & Joe McDonnell Break Down Dallas Stars 2025 NHL Draft Class, Cameron Schmidt Impressions

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