Akira Schmid of the Vegas Golden Knights is currently the only Swiss goalie in the NHL
Keystone
Akira Schmid is working hard at the Vegas Golden Knights to establish himself as the number one goalie. The Emmental native feels at home in the gambling city – but far from the glittering world.
The reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which primarily reports on the goalies of Las Vegas, is surprised. “What, it’s not at all certain that Akira will be Switzerland’s number one goalie at the Olympics?” he asks in slight disbelief. He has never heard of Leonardo Genoni, the best goalie of the last World Championship.
He also had to get to grips with Akira Schmid first. Hardly anyone expected the 25-year-old from Emmental to play a leading role in the players’ city this season. He had secured the position as backup to Adin Hill, the 2023 Stanley Cup winner with the Golden Knights and 2021 World Champion with Canada. However, Hill then suffered an injury in mid-October and it is currently unclear when he will return.
Only rarely on the strip
Hill’s bad luck is Schmid’s good luck. “Yes, it’s kind of like that,” says the Swiss, shrugging his shoulders almost apologetically. “He’s quite a nice guy in the event,” the American journalist had said. Perhaps too nice? Akira Schmid really isn’t a man of big words. Perhaps there is no place in the world where the quiet man from Bern would fit in worse than the glitz and glamor of Las Vegas.
He laughs. “But I feel very much at home here,” says Schmid. “I’m only on the Strip very rarely.” Although the Golden Knights’ imposing stadium, known as The Fortress, is located right on the strip, the team base and training center are around 20 minutes away in the suburb of Summerlin. Schmid also lives there with his wife and Goldendoodle dog Stella in a two-storey house. “I’d like to stay here,” emphasizes Schmid, whose contract expires at the end of the season. So there is a lot at stake for the Emmental native.
This is the season in which he wants to firmly establish himself in the NHL for the first time. Drafted in the 5th round (as number 136) by the New Jersey Devils in 2018, he has so far been unable to make a lasting impression in the best league in the world. He has played more often in the AHL than in the NHL in each season so far – in Utica in rural New York and in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson. Nevertheless, Schmid has fond memories; it was in Utica that he met his current wife.
New competition for Schmid
The competition in the NHL is tough, but the only Swiss goalie at the moment has done a good job so far. “Schmid has stepped into the breach admirably and is very solid,” praises the correspondent. Head coach Bruce Cassidy doesn’t want to venture onto the slippery slope. “He now has the chance to show that he can be a good number one goalie,” the experienced Canadian tells Keystone-SDA cautiously.
The timing of Hill’s comeback is currently open, but Vegas signed Carter Hart in October, one of the Canadian players (including current Ambri forward Alex Formenton) who was tried for sexual assault and ultimately acquitted. As of this week, he is eligible to play after being suspended by the league. Hart made his comeback in the NHL on Tuesday in the home win (4:3 n.V.) against Chicago.
But Schmid knows he has a chance, and he wants to seize it. The field hockey bible “The Hockey News” predicted 15 wins for him in its season preview. Now, after just over a quarter, he already has nine (six defeats) and a defense rate of just under 90 percent.
It is clear that he would love to recommend himself for a contract extension, which would certainly be worth more than the modest 875,000 dollars Schmid currently earns by NHL standards. The climate in the desert city is pleasant and the team is extremely popular.
Aiming for the Olympics
Due to the fear of being associated with gambling, the major professional leagues have long shied away from the city of gamblers and sin. The Golden Knights were then founded in Las Vegas in 2017, and a major tragedy just a few weeks after the first game welded the team and the city together, as Schmid explains. In October 2017, a gunman shot 60 people at a music festival from the window of a hotel, injuring hundreds.
“But it certainly also helped that the team was immediately successful,” continues Schmid, who is playing his second season in Las Vegas. The Golden Knights reached the play-off final in 2018 and won the Stanley Cup two and a half years ago.
But Schmid has another big goal, with the national team. A call-up for the Olympic Games should only be a formality, whether as number 1 remains to be seen. “It certainly helps that I can play a lot now,” he says. “But you also have to perform.” National coach Patrick Fischer certainly knows what he has in Bern. He made three appearances at the 2024 World Cup and helped win the silver medal. And he is more than used to competition.