Does the date Feb. 28, 2023 ring a bell?
Perhaps not, but for fans of the Nashville Predators, that February afternoon saw Mattias Ekholm dealt to the Edmonton Oilers in a pre-NHL Trade Deadline swap - a transaction to send a Nashville mainstay to a new team for the first time in his career.
Defenseman Tyson Barrie was part of the package that came the other way, along with a pair of draft picks, as well as a prospect few in Tennessee had probably ever heard of.
But two-and-a-half years later, that NHL hopeful may soon become a bit more known to the Nashville fanbase.
Reid Schaefer, a 6-foot-5, 21-year-old winger - with a fiery, on-ice personality to match his red hair - is one of the more highly-touted skaters in the Predators organization who has yet to make his NHL debut. But that could soon change.
Preds General Manager Barry Trotz mentioned Schaefer’s name on a number of occasions last season when discussing the future of the organization, and after an injury that sidelined the Edmonton, Alta., native for much of the previous season with Nashville’s AHL affiliate in Milwaukee, Schaefer is healthy again - and more than ready to prove what he’s capable of.
“It was a crazy last year,” Schaefer said from a hotel lobby in Tampa during the NHL Prospect Tournament as part of Preds Rookie Camp. “Obviously started in Milwaukee, had a really good start, and then it was cut short due to an injury. So for me, I haven't played a game in quite a long time. For me to now be able to play games in this tournament, I'm pretty excited.”
That prospect tournament, followed by Predators Training Camp which is set to begin on Wednesday in Nashville, is the next chapter in the journey for a player who fell in love with the game as a young boy growing up in the capital of Alberta, something that wasn’t difficult to do in his household.
Schaefer’s father, Jeremy, was taken in the seventh round of the 1994 NHL Draft by the Boston Bruins and played professionally in the ECHL for two seasons following a junior career in the WHL. Schaefer’s cousin is former NHLer Colin Fraser, a two-time Stanley Cup champion.
With those bloodlines, perhaps it was inevitable Schaefer would make something of this whole hockey thing.
“I was just playing more so for fun and just the love of the game at first, and then getting ready for junior, you start to take things a little more serious,” Schaefer, who began to do so as a teenager, said. “I think for me, that's kind of when I really started to think I could maybe go somewhere with this. I was a late bloomer, for sure. I was an eighth-round draft pick into the WHL, and then my career just kind of skyrocketed.”
Did it ever.
In his first full season with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds, Schaefer tallied 32 goals and 58 points in just 66 games to go along with 88 penalty minutes. He followed that up with 21 more points in 25 playoff games, numbers good enough that his hometown Edmonton Oilers made him a first-round pick (32nd overall) in the 2022 NHL Draft.
With that motivation, Schaefer potted 28 more goals, 61 points and 92 penalty minutes through 55 regular season games before helping Seattle to a WHL title. That same season, Schaefer won Gold with Team Canada at the World Junior Championship.
“That was a pretty special year,” Schaefer said. “You’re on a stacked team in Seattle there, and to go for a long run and win a championship is pretty special; and just the friendships you make along the way, plus the type of games you play are a lot more important. Then, winning a World Junior Championship in that year, too, it was pretty special to represent Canada and win Gold for them.”
But late in that 2022-23 campaign with Seattle, Schaefer got a call no top prospect ever expects before they play a single game with the team that drafted them.
“The Oilers were my hometown team, and I was really excited to be selected by them, but it was a short stint with them,” Schaefer said of the deal that sent him to the Predators organization. “I think I was in a little bit of shock at first, but I think it was kind of a blessing in disguise. I think there's more opportunity here in Nashville. It's a little bit more of a younger team coming up, and I think me being in Nashville, it’s been great so far. It’s such a good organization, and the development staff is unreal. It’s been great so far.”
Schaefer turned pro the following season and landed in the AHL with the Milwaukee Admirals where he put up 21 points in 63 games as a rookie. The following season, Schaefer showed continued improvement and had recorded eight goals and 14 points through 19 games before an injury sidelined him for the remainder of the campaign.
The ailment was a disappointing blow for a player who may have been on a trajectory to make his NHL debut, but those in the Nashville organization believe that day is still certainly coming.
“Reid's going to be a really good player, and he is a good player,” Admirals Head Coach Karl Taylor said. “He had a great start to the year and had an unfortunate injury, but we anticipate him doing well in camp, and hopefully he earns an extended stay for himself… But at the end of the year last year, we were disappointed we couldn't add him [back to our roster from injury] because he looked great in his skates. He's big, he's strong, he's playing very confident out there. You can see him from his first year here to this third year here, you can see the difference, and that's what you're hoping for and trying to strive for as a development staff, but also the coaches in Milwaukee.”
“I think for me, it's just how they welcomed me,” Schaefer said of what he’s appreciated most about the Nashville organization. “The players, obviously you go to your first training camp, they're all introducing themselves. The development staff has been great coming down to see me when I was in Seattle or Milwaukee and stuff like that. They just treat the players really well, and it feels like home here.”
Schaefer is hoping to someday call Nashville home, and while he knows Preds staff is hoping for big things, he’s also aware there’s still a process to all of this - one he’s working to make the most of one day at a time.
“It’s nice to hear your name involved in things, but for me, this is a business,” Schaefer said. “It's a job. You’ve got to go and take someone's job. So, I'm coming into camp trying to put the best foot forward and obviously earn a spot on the big team.”
So, what can Preds fans expect from the feisty forward when seeing him play for the first time? Well, let’s say it’s not surprising Schaefer has a bit of a mean streak considering his father’s 435 penalty minutes in just two seasons of ECHL play.
“My dad was kind of a rat, you could say, in his time, so I don't know,” Schaefer smiled. “It must be in the genes somewhere.”
That was evident during Schaefer’s participation in the NHL Prospect Tournament in Tampa that saw him not only score the winning goal with just 34 seconds left in regulation during Nashville’s 3-2 victory over Carolina on Saturday, but also when he stood up, clapped his stick on the boards and let the opponents know just a little bit louder than the rest of his teammates when the Hurricanes’ potential game-tying goal went in just after the buzzer.
“I'm a big, two-way power forward that can play up and down the lineup, provide secondary scoring, but for me, I think I'm just a pain in the ass to play against,” Schaefer smirked. “That's kind of my description of my game.”
For the young man who enjoys the music of Chris Stapleton and a big bowl of cookie dough ice cream from time to time, those attributes of his on-ice persona could one day make for rather entertaining moments inside Bridgestone Arena if his number is called.
And perhaps one day, Feb. 28, 2023 will go down not only as the day Ekholm left for Edmonton, but also the day a pain-in-the-buttocks power forward entered the Nashville fray.
“I know nothing's given or anything, so I’m just going out there and playing my game,” Schaefer said. “And at the end of the day, let's see what happens.”
