Schultz: Wild's concealed weapon

Tonight, when the Wild closes the regular season with the St. Louis Blues, Nick Schultz will slip on his No. 55 sweater for the 82nd time.

For the Wild's sake, it's better if you don't notice.

When Schultz walks around, it's amazing one of those bubbles "Dateline NBC" uses to disguise its secret sources doesn't hover over his face.

There's not an athlete in town who has made anonymity such an art. There's not an athlete in town that is most productive when he's completely invisible.

Since arriving in the NHL at age 19, the Wild defenseman has gone about his business with absolutely no fanfare. And that's perfectly fine with him.

"If you don't notice me out there, it's probably a good thing," said Schultz, the second draft pick in Wild history, chosen 33rd overall, 30 picks behind Marian Gaborik in 2000. "I just go out there, do my job and try to be steady.

"If I am noticed, it probably wasn't a very good night."

Gaborik jumps out because of his daunting speed, Brian Rolston because of his fear-inducing shot, Pierre-Marc Bouchard because of his adept playmaking, Derek Boogaard because he can deform your face with a single punch.

Schultz's contribution is subtler. When Schultz saved two goals by clearing the crease of loose pucks in a scoreless first period last month in Edmonton, it was as crucial as the goals scored by Gaborik and Mark Parrish yet couldn't be found in the boxscore.

A Gaborik hat trick and a Rolston bomb are a lot sexier than three Schultz stick checks and a really good poke check.

"Everyone's got a role on a team," Schultz said. "Not everyone's going to have the ability that Marian has to score 30 goals at a 50-game pace. What makes a team good is when everyone can go out, do their job and be satisfied with what they're capable of doing to help the team win."

Competitive for a reason

Cemented all season with partner Kim Johnsson, Schultz will lead the Wild for the second season in a row in blocked shots (140 entering tonight), which makes his durability impressive. He has missed one game in his career because of injury (February 2002).

He's sixth on the team in ice time, averaging 20-plus minutes a game. In his career, he's a plus-94 in victories and a minus-68 in losses. Tonight already will be his 367th game, third-most among NHL players before his 25th birthday.

"I think people forget how young he is because he's been around a long time," General Manager Doug Risebrough said. "Even sometimes I can forget because he's so reliable. He plays with a higher level of experience, and it's probably his demeanor and his seriousness.

"He's very serious about the game, he's very proud about how he plays. He's a dependable partner and he's incredibly competitive."

Coach Jacques Lemaire has ridden Schultz since the beginning. While he loves his defensive game, he wants Schultz to either raise his offensive play (61 points in 366 games) or his aggressiveness.

"I'm waiting for one of the two," Lemaire said.

But Risebrough says, "I feel the more he focuses on offense, the less you get at the other end. And the other end is good enough, so why worry about it?"

Schultz grew up on the grain farm of his father, Robert, in Strasbourg, Saskatchewan, a town of 800, 52 miles northeast of Regina. He's the youngest of three boys -- Kris and Terrence both played hockey, with Kris amassing 1,109 penalty minutes in four seasons in the Central and United Hockey Leagues -- which is where Schultz gets his competitiveness.

"We were always wrestling over something. We always got our Nintendo taken away from us because we were fighting," Schultz said, laughing. "Kris is the biggest one, so me and Terrence used to gang up on him all the time. One time we had his head pinned between the chair and the wall. Yeah, he wasn't moving, and we just gave it to him."

Stepping up in the playoffs

Schultz made his lasting impression on Risebrough during the Wild's 2003 run to the Western Conference finals. Paired with Willie Mitchell, Schultz went head-to-head against the Joe Sakic-Peter Forsberg line in the Colorado series and the Markus Naslund-Brendan Morrison-Todd Bertuzzi line in the Vancouver series.

Schultz was only 20.

"He was huge in the last playoff," Risebrough said. "And he was really young. That's when I realized this is a guy with a maturity about him. He just battles. He's a real battler.

"Nick is one of those guys that always rises to the occasion. There's an element of confidence with him, that the bigger the game, the more he'll respond. And it doesn't show in, 'He'll do more.' He's just not going to let you down. And that's a comfortable feeling."

Big games bring out the best in him, Schultz agrees. "The magnitude of those games are at a different level and I can't wait to raise my level of play."

Risebrough is clearly proud that seven years after drafting Schultz, he's one of two still on the team.

"I remember the day we drafted Nick and Marian, we had a dinner for the people selected that day," Risebrough said, smiling. "Nick was there with his mother [Carol]. We asked them to introduce themselves and she stood up and said, 'I hope some day you're as proud of my son as I am of him today.'

"And I would say today, we are."

Michael Russo • mrusso@startribune.com