The Calgary Flames and the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers have had their fair share of players bounce back and forth over the years. Some started with the Panthers and moved all the way up north to Calgary, while others were sent to the pleasantries of beaches and consistently warm weather of Florida.

Players like Sam Bennett and Ryan Lomberg (who has made his way back to the Flames organization via this off-season’s free agency) are connected to the two squads, but the biggest names are obviously those involved in the big Matthew Tkachuk deal, involving Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar. However, the Flames also received a prospect in that deal who was overlooked due to the scale of the deal: Cole Schwindt.

While he might not be a player who catches one’s eye immediately when watching games, he still has plenty of tools that could be useful at the NHL level. He comes in at 19th overall on the 2024 edition of the FlamesNation annual prospect rankings.

Cole Schwindt

Schwindt was born in Breslau, Ontario, and stayed close to the town until beginning his professional career. After playing his Triple-A seasons with the nearby Kitchner Jr. Rangers, he played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League with the Mississauga Steelheads, which were located just an hour away from his hometown.

In his first season with the Steelheads, Schwindt only scored 18 points in 66 games, but his scoring would jump massively over the next two seasons, with 49 points in 68 games in his draft year of 2018-19, when he was selected in the third round of the draft by the Panthers, and then in the year following, produced 71 points in 57 games.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the effects it had on the different American League teams at the time, Schwindt made his professional debut in 2020-21 with the Syracuse Crunch, who were the temporary affiliate of the Panthers instead of being the sole affiliate of their Florida counterpart, the Tampa Bay Lightning. He played 10 games and scored two points before everything returned to normal.

The Panthers found their new affiliation team, the Charlotte Checkers, and after attending the team’s training camp, he was assigned to the AHL. Schwindt had a relatively productive first full professional season, scoring 40 points in 72 games, including his career-high in goals in the AHL with 19. And because of his performance, he was able to make his NHL debut with the Panthers that season, too, playing three total games with the squad before being returned to Charlotte.

Then, the big trade happened. Schwindt was included in the package for Tkachuk and was shipped off to Calgary with one of the best two-way defencemen in the NHL and a winger coming off a historic season in the assist column with 85 assists and 115 points in 80 games. Oh, and they were also two players about to be paid lots of money by the Flames to come in and make an impact.

While all of the hullabaloo about Huberdeau and Weegar was happening in their first season as members of the Flames in 2022-23, Schwindt played his second season in the AHL with the Calgary Wranglers, scoring 14 goals and 18 assists for 32 points in 70 games, an eight-point drop off from his previous season total with the Checkers. However, in the Wranglers postseason, he managed a half-a-point-per-game pace with four points in eight games, three of which were goals.

That brings us to this previous season, and just from a look at his numbers, it appears that the slight dip in production might have been due to moving between organizations and getting used to the reality of being traded instead of having the potential for being a “nothing prospect.” Schwindt’s production jumped back up to 36 points—four more than the previous season—in 66 games—four fewer than the previous season. He also tallied his career-high in assists with 22. Schwindt also scored five points in six games in the Wranglers’ short postseason appearance.

FlamesNation’s very own Paige Siewert, who is one of the best in the business covering the Wranglers and has provided plenty of great insights in the past, provided some information on Schwindt’s 2023-24 season:

“Schwindt found more of an established role with the Wranglers last season that included some more consistent scoring. He worked his way up the lineup and was playing on the top line by playoffs. He is the Wranglers’ most consistent centerman in the faceoff dot and truly earned his late opportunities for the Flames. It feels like he is approaching his potential and what a role would look like in the NHL as he stands out more and more in the AHL.”

Speaking of the NHL, Schwindt made his Flames debut in 2023-24 and didn’t shy away from anything in the four games that he played while up with the team. It’s hard to judge a player based on such a small sample size, but he made some solid plays when asked to do so while he was playing in the NHL.