By Dropping the Mitts

Losing Schmidli will be a big blow next season

Apr 4, 2015 | 3:50 PM

It was made public on Wednesday that Swiss import forward Kris Schmidli signed with the GCK Lions, farm team for the Zurich-based ZSC Lions of the Swiss National League.

Raiders general manager Bruno Campese looked at the positives and believes he can get a good replacement at this year’s CHL Import Draft, referencing the team’s recent success at drafting European forwards (Leon Draisaitl and Simon Stransky as examples).

That may very well be true and the Raiders could draft an excellent player to replace Schmidli.  But make no mistake, this will be a big blow for the Raiders next season.

In his half season with the Raiders shortened by a broken toe, Schmidli was a point-per-game player with seven goals and 17 points in as many games. Schmidli would have played his 19-year-old season with the Raiders next year, after developing at the WHL level for the previous two years. Replacing him with a rookie next year in the draft puts an offensive damper on the Raiders next season.

That might be the last thing the Raiders can afford, because they need all the offensive help they can get.

ON TO THE FINALE

P.A.'s Rebecca Strong moving on as CGT reveals first six performers heading to the finale

2h ago

Real estate

P.A.'s supply of housing for sale drops to 3 months

17h ago

Bodybuilding

Prince Albert bodybuilder wins top prize at regional competition

19h ago

The Raiders only scored 215 goals last year. That’s their lowest total since the 2007-2008 season when they managed just 196. Even when the Raiders finished last in the league during the 2011-2012 season, they still scored 219 goals.

It’s very unlikely that the Raiders will able to get close to a point-per-game player to come in for next season picking around the 15-18 mark. Draisaitl had 58 points in 64 games as a rookie for the Raiders, but they picked him second overall at the 2012 CHL Import Draft. They won’t have that high of a pick this year. Although the draft order hasn’t been posted yet, the Raiders should pick somewhere in the teens.

Schmidli came to the Raiders from the Kelowna Rockets in part to replace Leon Draisaitl, who like Schmidli, left the Raiders at the beginning of the season to start his professional hockey career with the Edmonton Oilers.

Then as the season went on, Oilers general manager Craig MacTavish made it clear Draisaitl wouldn’t play with the Raiders. MacTavish gave the Kelowna Rockets as the only destination Draisaitl could be traded to.

Since Draisaitl is a European import (from Germany) as well that meant the Rockets would have to send one of their two Europeans back in the deal, being Kris Schmidli and Tomas Soustal. Soustal had 18 points in 68 games with the Raiders, Schmidli almost had that many with the Raiders—17 points in 17 games. Schmidli, who also represented his native Switzerland at the World Juniors, was the obvious choice.

Schmidli seemed to enjoy his time as a Raider. After he scored his first goal as a Raider on Jan. 9, he bit the blade of his stick in celebration in homage to the Raiders’ old pirate logo. He also referred to the Ches Leach Lounge crowd that cheered for him for post-game interviews as “a family.”

But while he was enjoying his time as a Raider, Schmidli was working on a deal to play professionally in Switzerland.

On Jan. 22 (after the WHL trade deadline), Swiss magazine Tages-Anzeiger alleged that Schmidli would likely return to his hometown of Zurich and sign with the Lions franchise.

You can’t blame Schmidli, at all.

Like Campese said honestly on Wednesday, it’s unlikely he’ll get to the NHL at this point and has a much better chance to flourish professionally in Europe. Schimdli gets to return home to play hockey, and play for money. He wouldn’t be able to do that at the WHL level—but that’s a whole different discussion for another day.

jdandrea@panow.com

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea