Prince George winters are cold and long and Kris Schmidt didn’t waste any time building a backyard rink to get his son Cameron’s hockey career started.
The kid was on blades skating on his own a month before his second birthday.
By the time he was six or seven, playing for his first teams in the Prince George Minor Hockey Association, it was obvious those backyard sessions taking shots at his goalie dad was time well spent. Cameron was able to skate circles around most of his age-group peers and was well on his way to developing into one of the hottest hockey prospects the city has ever seen.
That became official Thursday when the Vancouver Giants picked him seventh overall in the Western Hockey League Prospects Draft.
“He was full-on skating on his own at the age of one, he was a better skater than he was a walker,” said Kris Schmidt. “I remember one parent saying to my wife (Crystal) at Kin 2 rink, ‘That must have been a painful delivery with Cameron, because he must have come out with skates on.’”
Watching clips of him skate on the WHL website, that becomes almost believable. Think Connor McDavid-type acceleration and what a 15-year-old version of the NHL superstar must have been like to try hold in check. It’s a gift the five-foot-10, 166-pound Schmidt now possesses.
The Giants were among several teams that made it known to the family that they wanted to draft Cameron. Kris Schmidt admitted he got a little worried when one of those interested teams, the Regina Pats, moved up one position in the draft order from sixth to fifth when they swapped with the Swift Current Broncos on Thursday. That would have meant Cameron’s WHL destination would have been two times zones away in the East Division, where trips to Prince George happen once every two seasons. Now that he’s a Giant, playing the same B.C. Division as the Prince George Cougars, it will be much easier for the family to watch him play.
“We knew he was going to be a high selection, it was just where he was going to end up, it seemed like it was going to be between Regina and Vancouver and those are two very different places,” said Kris Schmidt. “Regina is very far from home and they don’t play here very often, whereas Vancouver is essentially our second home, with all our family living down there. We know that group pretty well and it’s just such a great fit.”
Schmidt played spring hockey there the past two seasons with the Vancouver Vipers and that meant from March to June, every weekend Kris and Cameron would make the drive to North Vancouver to get to the team’s hockey base. He got to know a lot of the top players in the province that way and it was an easy decision to leave Prince George last summer to join Rink Academy and the 15U prep team in Kelowna, where Hockey Hall of Fame Jarome Iginla was the head coach and former Vancouver Canucks coach Glenn Carnegie was the skill development coach.
Right behind Schmidt on the WHL draft list Thursday, chosen eighth overall by the Spokane Chiefs, was fellow forward Chase Harrington of Prince George. They grew up together usually playing on opposing teams in the PGMHA and were teammates for two years when they were on the peewee Tier 1 rep team.
“He’s more of a goal-scorer,” said Harrington. “I think I’m more of a two-way goalscorer/playmaker. He can obviously make amazing plays and he’s a little bit better offensively than me but I think I hold my own on defence.”
Harrington and Schmidt first got to know each other around the rinks of P.G, starting when they were five-year-olds.
“They played in Prince George Minor Hockey the whole time until Chase was 12 and he went to Delta,” said Jennifer Harrington. “They played peewee together and made a run for the playoffs there. They were a dynamic duo those two, all the way through. They’re very good friends.”
The inclusion of Schmidt and Harrington in the top-10 list marked the first time in the history of the WHL draft that two Prince George players were selected in the first round, following on the heels of Miguel Marques of Prince George being picked 10th overall last year by the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Other notable Prince George minor hockey picks in the history of the draft include Ryan Howse (third-overall, 2006, Chilliwack Bruins), Brett Connolly (10th overall, 2007, Prince George Cougars) and Nick Drazenovic (11th overall, 2002, Cougars).
Schmidt found out he’d been drafted when he checked the WHL website on his phone after the team practice Thursday morning.
“It’s been pretty crazy, I found out as soon as I got off the ice,” said the 15-year-old Schmidt. “It’s awesome going to Vancouver. My grandparents live there and they’ll be able to come out and watch some games.
“It’s obviously an awesome experience being drafted this high, along with Ryan Howse and Brett Connolly. It’s a great program (in Prince George) and I was on the ice pretty much every day and I had great coaches.”
Schmidt, who will play for the Rink Academy’s U18 team next season, is looking forward to playing older opponents in the WHL. He lists Graham Laursen, Travis Rebman and Drazenovic as his most influential Prince George coaches. It certainly didn’t hurt to have Iginla this past season as his coaching mentor.
“It was an unbelievable experience being coached by a Hall of Famer, said Schmidt. “He knows the game so well and all season I was picking his brain. He helped me with shooting and working down low in the corners, because that was his game.
“I’ve been working on my skating a long time, I’d say that’s my best asset. I guess I was just born with that natural talent and I had skating sessions a couple times a week when I was younger.”
In his 13th game of the season the speedy Schmidt broke his hand in a collision with a teammate at the John Reid tournament in January and he missed the last 23 games of the season, which dropped him down the prospects list. He still managed to produce 25 goals and 16 assists for 41 points in those 13 games. The five-foot-seven, 136-pound Prince George native returned in time for the playoffs and lit it up for six goals and 11 points in five playoff games.
“Cameron Schmidt is an exciting, dynamic, offensively skilled player who’s going to make fans of the Vancouver Giants really excited,” said Vancouver Giants scouting director Daryl Anning. “The first things you notice are his speed and his natural offensive instincts. He’s a one-shot scorer and we are thrilled to have selected him today.”
Harrington, listed at six-foot, 166 pounds, was also a prolific scorer this past season, leading Delta Hockey Academy U15 prep with 32 goals and 18 assists for 50 points in 29 games. That continued in the playoffs and he put up three goals and 11 assists for 14 points to lead Delta Academy to the Canadian Sports School Hockey League playoff championship. Harrington’s Delta team, ranked No. 7, beat Schmidt’s sixth-ranked Rink Academy team 7-3 in the CSSHL final, March 15.
The Prince George Cougars had the ninth overall pick and used it to select centre Lee Shurgot of the Saskatoon Generals of the Saskatchewan 15U double-A Hockey League. Shurgot averaged 3.43 points per game this past season with 57 goals and 43 assists for 100 points in just 31 games for the Generals, the team for which Cougars centre Riley Heidt played as a first-year bantam. Shurgot also had five goals and eight points in thee playoff games and had a goal and three assists in eight games with U18 triple-A Saskatoon Blazers.
Schmidt and Harrington are in Philadelphia this week playing at the World Youth Hockey Championships for WestCan Prime, an all-star academy squad coached by former Langley Rivermen coach Bobby Henderson. The 32-team tournament, being played at the Flyers Training Center in nearby Voorhees Township, N.J., runs Friday-Monday.
Harrington found out he was going to Spokane when he saw his name on the WHL list and he spoke to Chiefs general manager Matt Bardsley a few minutes later.
“He just said he’s excited for our future,” said Chase. “They got the first-overall pick last year, Berkly Catton, so it will be fun to play with him.
“I’m super-pumped, I’ve always wanted to play in the WHL since I was really young. They’ve got a pretty young team, which is perfect, it should be awesome. I have great teammates, great coaches at Delta Hockey Academy and I’m always trying to get better, pushing my teammates around me, trying to stay positive and be a good leader.”
Asked to describe himself as a hockey player, Harrington replied: “I’m big, a good skater, I can shoot the puck. I see the ice differently than anybody else to make skating lanes, passing lanes.”
Harrington left Prince George to play hockey in Delta to years ago. His father Daryl was able to get a construction job and moved to Delta with Chase, while his mom Jennifer commuted back and forth and held the family fort in Prince George, where she works at the Prince Native Friendship Centre. Daryl is already making plans to work in Spokane and he and Jennifer will live with Chase when he gets there to play for the Chiefs in 2023.
“He started hockey when he was three and he has loved hockey ever since,” said Jennifer Harrington. “He’s never missed a day on the ice, never missed a workout, and he’s so focused on his goals, he’s inspiring to me.”
Chase also lists Drazenovic as a major influence on his hockey development and his advice helped steer the family to the WHL. With three top-10 WHL picks in the past two drafts, Jennifer Harrington says the PGMHA is doing the right things to develop its players and the word is spreading.
“That’s what the scouts keep saying, what’s going on in Prince George, there are so many kids coming out of there,” she said. “The top draft pick today is from Whitehorse and he went first overall and these scouts are saying they just love the kids from the north, they’re ready to play, even in the WHL.”
Forward Gavin McKenna of Whitehorse, Yukon, WHO played this season for Rink Academy Kelowna 18U and led the CSSHL with 65 points, was picked first overall by the Medicine Hat Tigers. Rounding out the top three were defenceman Jackson Smith (Edge School, Calgary), picked second overall by the Tri-City Americans, and forward Cole Reschny (Northern Alberta Extreme 15U), picked by the Victoria Royals.
GREEN MAKES OTHER GOALIES ENVIOUS
One other PGMHA product was picked in Thursday’s draft – goaltender Ryder Green, who played for the Cariboo Cougars 15U triple-A team, went in the eighth round, 158th overall, to the Brandon Wheat Kings.
"Greener was a prime example of what it takes to get to the next level,” said Cougars 15U head coach Nathan Warren. “His attention to detail, dedication, and work ethic was off the charts this season. A great teammate, leader, and an even better kid. I look forward to watching him progress further this season."
Kris Joyce, who serves as the Cariboo Cougars’ director of goaltending, was justifiably proud of his young protégé.
“He is the first goalie drafted from Prince George in my recent memory and he will represent the north with class,” said Joyce. “His development has been a steady uprise over the past year, fueled by his hard work on and off the ice, the sky is the limit for him."
With their final pick of the draft in the 13th round, 268th overall the Giants chose North Vancouver native Chloe Primerano of the Burnaby Winter Club, a defenceman, the first female ever taken in the WHL draft. Her at the 17-year-old brother Luca, a forward,joined the Prince George Spruce Kings at the end of the season. He played two BCHL playoff games and will be a highly-touted rookie with the Kings next season..
