The opportunity extends to Schultz' and wife Jillian's families. They both grew up in Kelowna. Schultz busts into a huge grin whenever he is asked if he expects support from family and friends attending games at Climate Pledge Arena.
"My wife and I are pretty excited," says the 31-year-old expected to play top-four defenseman minutes. "But I think our families were even more excited. We still can't really believe we ended up here ... just to be able to pack the car up and drive down here (Kelowna to Seattle for training camp). We had our moms come with us originally to help us set up our house. It's just such a treat and we love the West Coast."
Schultz has impressed teammates and coaches alike with his work during training camp and preseason games. Dave Hakstol's highest praise is Schultz shows patience with the puck, especially exiting the defensive zone, knowing when to pass for a breakout or carry himself, with a plan in mind in either case.
The former Penguins and Capitals defenseman's potential to quarterback the power play was a big reason why Kraken GM Ron Francis signed Schultz. Francis said over the summer the hockey operations group was highly impressed with Schultz' work in man-advantage situations with Pittsburgh and Washington, noting he played behind top power play "QBs" Kris Letang and John Carlson with those two squads and coming to Seattle will allow him the ice time to become an elite power play quarterback himself.
"I've done this for a while and you kind of know what to expect," said Schultz. "I was fortunate enough to play behind two of the best power play quarterbacks. The penalty kills [units around the league] are so good these days. We need to have quick puck movement. When there is an opportunity for me to shoot, it opens up other lanes. We've got a lot of skill here, so it should be pretty fun."
As recently as Monday's practice at Kraken Community Iceplex, Schultz was manning the blue line positioning as the sole defenseman with forwards Andre Burakovsky, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Matty Beniers and Alex Wennberg in what appears to be the first power play unit. He is unafraid to shoot when the opportunity presents itself and to date has been "seeing the ice" (a favorite Francis term) and making laser passes to scorers like Burakovsky, Bjorkstrand and Beniers.
"I wanted a bigger role and there's definitely an opportunity here," said Schultz. "I've got to go out and earn it."
