If you want to research a hockey player’s career or find out where he’s playing these days, the first stop is usually by checking out one of hockeydb.com or eliteprospects.com. At a quick glance either of those websites can give you an overview of a guy’s goings-on. How he’s playing, with whom he’s playing and where he’s playing.

So when some of his friends checked in on him recently and saw that he’s bounced from Sudbury to California to Owen Sound to New Hampshire to Kansas to Orlando and finally to Massachusetts in just over three seasons, there was some consternation.

“What’s going on?” Matt Schmalz asks in his most-concerned voice, doing a fair imitation of their question.

And …

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” he insists.

Here’s the story.

The 22-year-old from Dunnville says he’s a fan of stability. That’s why he stayed in Sudbury for nearly four full seasons in the Ontario Hockey League. Yeah, it was really cold much of the time he was there. It was a long way from home, too. And the Wolves were occasionally mediocre but usually bad around him. Yet he stayed.

Along the way, the six-foot-six centre was selected by the Los Angeles Kings in the fifth round of the 2015 draft. After a three-game taste of the American Hockey League at the end of that season he was dealt to Owen Sound for his final year of junior. The following fall, he ready to really launch his pro career. But instead of being assigned to the AHL, the Kings sent him to their ECHL affiliate in New Hampshire. 

The Coast, as the players call the league, is a long way from the NHL. You can try to convince yourself the dream is just around the corner but except in a few rare cases, it’s not. When the season was over, Schmalz decided not to re-sign there but to bet on himself and carve out his own path.

“Then things just took a turn,” he says.

He went to the training camp of the Chicago Blackhawks farm team. He was good but they had a glut of bodies so he signed with the ECHL’s Wichita Thunder, played 11 games there and then decided it wasn’t a fit for him.

At this point the Orlando Solar Bears — with one of his old OHL coaches behind the bench — traded for him. Trouble was, three games after Schmalz arrived in Florida, the Tampa Bay Lightning sent a bunch of its prospects from its AHL team in Syracuse to Orlando. Before Schmalz could even unpack his suitcases, he was squeezed out and on the move again. This time to Massachusetts.

A few games into his career as a Worcester Railer, he found his stride. At last he was the pro he’d always thought he could be. With eight points in six games, he was feeling good. Until he found himself in a fight.

To protect himself, he grabbed the right arm of the other guy so he wouldn’t get plowed. Sadly, he quickly discovered the big dude was a lefty.

“I went and broke my jaw,” he says.

It’s cost him four weeks. He should be back in action this weekend. Hoping he can recapture that magic and get on a roll to the end of the season. Along the way, maybe erasing — at least in the minds of hockey people — some of what’s on those websites.

Oh those websites. You can almost hear him shaking his head through the phone when he thinks about them. 

Yeah, the bouncing around raises some questions. Especially among his buddies. But his plus-minus ratings from his final two years in Sudbury on a bad, bad team will catch the eye of people in the game. Marks of minus-57 and minus-56 will do that.

“It’s world renowned,” he quips.

He’s a better player now, he believes. More mature. Stronger. More defensively responsible while still able to score. He hopes scouts are still watching him and are seeing that same thing. He hopes someone sees enough to take a chance on him and give him a shot in the AHL next season.

If not, he’ll start all over again in The Coast. One way or another, it’s going to work. It has to.

“I’ve definitely gone all in now.”