I love Schmitty as much as the next guy, but how much of the love Schmitty is getting is Monday morning quarterbacking. For almost all of last year he was our 6th - 7th D-man. You don't protect a guy who can barely crack your starting lineup, unless as DC suggested you are trying to entice GMGM to pick up a contract you could do without.
Yes, there is a fair amount of Monday Morning QBing here. and last year he was 6th - 7th on the depth chart.
However, at the least, GMBetaMale knew, or should of known, that Alzner and Shattenkrap would not be back, and i believe Orlovs contract wasn’t done, which left Schmitty, Chrony, and Hershey to fill out the DCorps.
So I believe the biggest issue is protecting the likes of Mojo, Bura and Eller while exposing an excellent young two-way Dmam that can play both sides all while you’re at risk of loosing half you’re DCorps.
Hey I think Schmidt is a great kid and has a chance of being an elite Dman. However if there wasn’t an immediate need for him, I’d say good luck. So this is less about the person/player, it’s more about GMBetaMale being a terrible GM