FORT LAUDERDALE — Nate Schmidt arrived in Florida uneasy about starting his tenure with the Panthers.

Florida, coming off the franchise’s first Stanley Cup title, needed to replace a pair of defensemen it lost in the offseason, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Brandon Montour. Schmidt, who had played under coach Paul Maurice briefly in Winnipeg, was here to fill that void.

“I thought I had it pretty difficult the first couple weeks,” Schmidt said, “being like, ‘How do you find your way with this team that just won? How do you know where you fit in with this group and what you can do to provide? Is it enough? Is it the same that they lost?’

“All those things (are) in your head, until the first couple weeks, you start to settle in, and you get into the system, and then you start to get in and integrate with the guys.”

But Schmidt, at 33 years old, wanted to get back to his old style of play. And he wanted to win. The Panthers gave him a shot to do both. Schmidt has become a big contributor during Florida’s trip back to the Stanley Cup Final, and now that Schmidt is three wins away from lifting the Cup for the first time, Maurice said the veteran defenseman has “found his fun again.”

“I’m so happy for him,” Maurice said. “I think especially because I go back to the kind of conversations we had this summer of what he was looking for from a tour with the Florida Panthers. He’s … not 23 anymore, and he wanted to get his game back. That was the whole point. He felt he was a better player than he was playing, and he took full responsibility for that. There was no blame to anybody else. He just thought he had more to give.

“And it took him probably three or four months to get used to the way that we play, and since that time, he’s been incredibly effective. What I’m most happy for him is especially in Game 1 — (Game 2) as well — but he’s getting up the ice, and he looks like he did when he was a kid, when he first came in the league in Washington. He was dynamic with the way he’d get up the ice, and then coaches beat that out of you and take the fun of the game for you. But he looks like he’s found his fun again.”

It took time for Schmidt, a St. Cloud native and Gophers alum, to get acclimated. He said it took until Florida played Tampa for a pair of games in Finland that he finally felt like he was fully integrated into the squad.

Related Articles

Wild notebook: Guerin saw prospects progress at World Championships

Wild re-sign Marcus Johansson to one-year, $800K contract

Wild GM Bill Guerin: American hockey needs to keep its foot on the gas

WJC pre-tourney games slated for Greater Minnesota

Who will hoist the Stanley Cup? NHL’s final 4 of Stars-Oilers and Panthers-Hurricanes has a familiar feel.

“What (the coaches) talk about is where you are in our system, how you fit, what your role is, and knowing that it’s okay just to do that,” Schmidt said. “We don’t ask you to do more. So that’s one of the biggest things; I felt once I learned that and understand that that’s good enough, and you don’t have to try and be like, ‘Oh, I need to be playing more. I need to do this. I need to do that.’

“It was like, ‘No, no, you’re right where we need you to be.’”

Schmidt has been exactly what the Panthers need him to be. Not only is he playing well on the ice, he is providing levity off the ice. Maurice called him a “big smile guy.”

“You need those personalities in the room, especially this time of year when games get tighter,” forward Sam Reinhart said. “Nothing changes about him and it’s huge to have personalities like that in the locker room.”

Schmidt has excelled in the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final. He had two assists in a losing effort in Game 1; in that game, hockey analytics website Hockey Stat Card rated him the top player on either team for that game. In Game 2, he added two more assists and earned a 2.24 game score, which was sixth on the team.

“He’s been playing unreal, making some huge plays for us at key moments,” defenseman Gustav Forsling said. He’s been great.”

Schmidt has reached this point in the playoffs before. He reached the Final with Vegas in 2018, scoring three times and notching four assists before the Golden Knights lost to Washington four games to one. But that team, Schmidt said, was happy just advancing through the postseason during their surprise run to the Final. Then in his mid-20s, Schmidt assumed getting to the Final would be a common experience. But it has taken seven years and three team changes to get back. Now he is with a team that expects to be in the Final, and they expect to win.

“When we won the conference final in Vegas, it was a much different feel than what we wanted here,” Schmidt said. “It was like, ‘Guys, this is kind of what this team believes that they are supposed to do. … This is where we’re supposed to be.’”

GAMING

Jennifer Lauerman

Canterbury Park Racetrack and Casino, Shakopee, announced that Jennifer Lauerman has been named vice president of marketing and entertainment. Lauerman most recently was a partner with Bold North Associates overseeing Taste of the NFL and Taste of the Draft. Prior to that, Lauerman was senior director of partnership marketing for the Minnesota Super Bowl Committee.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

JNBA Financial Advisors, Minneapolis, announced that CEO and Chairman Richard S. Brown has been named top adviser in Minnesota on the Forbes Best-in-State Top Wealth Advisors-High Net Worth list.

GOVERNMENT

Minnesota Housing, the state’s housing finance agency, announced that Andy Pratt has joined as finance counsel. Pratt most recently practiced real estate law at Messerli Kramer in Minneapolis, and before that was with Eckberg Lammers in Stillwater and RBC Capital Markets in Minneapolis.

HEALTH CARE

HealthPartners, a Bloomington-based health insurer and health care provider, announced the election of Paul Williams as chair of its board of directors, Laura Liu as vice chair and Morris Goodwin as treasurer, and the addition of board members Sherri Broderius and Mary Grove.

LAW

The Minnesota Judicial Branch announced that the Honorable Christopher Jon Lehmann has been elected by his peers to serve as chief judge of Minnesota’s First Judicial District for a two-year term beginning July 1, and chambered in Dakota County; and that the Honorable Charles Webber has been elected to serve as assistant chief judge in the First Judicial District, chambered in Scott County. … Moss & Barnett, Minneapolis, announced that attorney April E. King has joined the firm.

MANUFACTURING

Donaldson Co. Inc., a Bloomington-based maker of filtration systems for industry, announced the following in-house 2024 inventor award winners: Emerging Innovator award: Mikayla Yoder; Manufacturing Excellence: Jon Haag; Technology Champion: Gert Willems; Technology Achievement: Vincent Kayaerts, and the Frank A. Donaldson award for long-term contributions: Dan Tuma. In 2024, Donaldson registered 392 new patents and currently has a total of 3,260 active U.S. and international patents.

NONPROFITS

Elder Voice Advocates, a Minneapolis-based organization supporting the policy interests of older adults and their families, announced the hire of Josh Sande as associate director, a new position, effective May 15. Most recently, Sande served as committee administrator with the Minnesota House of Representatives, leading the work of the Health Finance & Policy Committee. … The Minnesota Justice Research Center, a Minneapolis-based organization advocating for change in the criminal justice system, announced the hire of Jana Kooren as associate director. Kooren most recently was with the Minnesota Freedom Fund, and before that the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.

OPENINGS

My Salon Suite, a national retail personal-care franchise, announced the opening of a location at 1341 113th Ave NE, Blaine. The franchise owner is Brian Farrell, who also owns My Salon Suite locations in Bloomington, Plymouth, Apple Valley, Chanhassen and Rogers.

ORGANIZATIONS

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation announced that Whitney Harvey, senior director of workforce solutions for the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, was selected to participate in the 11th cohort of its Business Leads Fellowship Program, which trains and provides participants from state and local chambers, economic development agencies and trade associations with resources and networking opportunities.

RECREATION

Seagull Outfitters and Cabins, a Grand Marais-based Boundary Waters outfitter and provider of cabin rentals on Seagull Lake, announced Grant and Christina Hopke as new owners, taking over from Debbie Mark, who is retiring.

SERVICES

St. Paul-based Ecolab, which provides businesses with sanitary protection products and services and also runs several related subsidiaries, announced the appointment and election of Marion Gross to the Ecolab board as an independent director. Gross previously was executive vice president and global chief supply chain officer at McDonalds.

TECHNOLOGY

Arctic Wolf, an Eden Prairie-based provider of cybersecurity products and services for business, announced the promotions of Chris Kraft to chief product officer and Jeff Green as chief development officer.

Related Articles

Darts welcomes new president with strong Dakota County ties

Business People: Catherine Penkert named chief of staff at Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity

Business People: Longtime NAMI Minnesota executive director to retire

Business People: Education Minnesota elects Monica Byron as president

UnitedHealth CEO Witty resigns amid setbacks

EMAIL ITEMS to businessnews@pioneerpress.com.

The Twins this morning placed right-hander Zebby Matthews on the 15-day Injured List with a right shoulder strain.

Matthews, 25, was recalled from Class AAA St. Paul on May 18 and has made four starts for the big league club, going 1-1 with a 5.21 earned-run average. He has fanned 25 and walked eight in 19 innings.

The move is retroactive to June 5.

To take his place on the 26-man active roster, the Twins recalled left-hander Danny Coulombe from his rehab assignment and reinstated him from the 15-day Injured List.

Before being injured Coulombe had made 19 appearances without allowing an earned run for the Twins. His 16.2 scoreless innings streak is tied for the second-longest active streak in baseball. He has allowed only eight hits, walked two and struck out 19.

The Twins are losing starters, and they’ll have to call up another to take Matthews’ spot in the rotation. The right-hander was filling the role of Simeon Woods Richardson, who was demoted to St. Paul after going 2-2 in eight appearances, allowing 44 hits and 14 walks in 37.2 innings.

This week, the Twins learned they’ll be without their best starter, Pablo Lopez, for up to two months because of a muscle strain in his right shoulder. David Festa was called up to take his last spot in the rotation and was drilled for eight runs in a 14-3 loss to the A’s in Sacramento.

Related Articles

Twins’ bullpen sees one slip away to streaking Toronto

After ‘thawing out,’ Twins reveling in the Minnesota sun

Blue Jays rally past Twins

Rocco Baldelli wants Twins bullpen to remunerate surprise relievers

Twins option Kody Funderburk, recall right-hander Travis Adams

Edward Lotterman

Economic news for our nation this past week has not been good. In his erstwhile self-appointed role as the fourth branch of government, Elon Musk condemned the budget bill finally passed by the House but stalled in the Senate.

Such criticism by a billionaire egomaniac capable of funding primary challengers to anyone defying his order may not intimidate every senator. But apparently it can scare enough of them to stall the bill — the legitimate flaws in the legislation notwithstanding.

Thus a spending bill that would pile on trillions more in U.S. debt and should have been passed and signed last August for the fiscal year that began in October 2024 still hangs fire. That shovels additional uncertainty onto households, businesses and financial markets already awash with confusion.

At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, President Donald Trump once again blasted Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell over interest rates: “’Too Late’ Powell must now LOWER THE RATE. He is unbelievable!!!” That gave financial market palpitations worldwide.

The common element for these two events is that the daily lives of concerned U.S. citizens will, indeed, be affected by bonds and bond markets this year. Last week in this space, I gave primer on how bonds and bond markets work. This week, we apply it to the U.S. economy.

At the Capitol, regardless of its final details, the GOP’s Big Beautiful Bill will give us higher budget deficits in the years ahead, not lower ones. To finance these, the U.S. Treasury will have to issue at least $1 trillion in new debt — bills, notes or bonds — about every six months going forward. This will be done in the “primary market” in which new bonds are issued.

At the White House, and at the Federal Reserve, the question is whether the Fed will lower or raise interest rates. But it can only do that by increasing or decreasing the money supply. To accomplish that, it will have to buy or sell existing bonds it owns in the secondary market. More on that later.

Bond markets are open to anyone, individuals, insurance companies, pension plans and so on, not only in the United States, but from anywhere in the world. The Minnesota State Retirement System may buy U.S. bonds previously owned by a Russian oligarch via a bank in Cyprus, by the central bank of Denmark, a Fidelity mutual fund or a myriad of other entities.

Since this market is open to all comers, decisions about the Fed buying or selling in it are made by its Federal Open Market Committee, consisting of the seven members of its Board of Governors and the presidents of the system’s 12 district banks. All participate in deliberations, but when it comes to a vote, only five of the 12 district presidents vote in an annual rotation. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari is not a voting member this year but will be in 2026.

Except for the volumes involved, borrowing money by issuing new bonds is about the same for the U.S. Treasury as it is for Xcel Energy, the BNSF railroad or Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. Public and private entities have investment banks conduct the sale. Given its size, the Treasury auctions new bills, bonds and notes at weekly, monthly or quarterly intervals to large “primary dealers.” These sell on to other buyers. The auction is structured so that the bidders promising the lowest interest rates get the bonds.

Thus the issuing of new bonds to fund federal budget deficits is straightforward. The Treasury pays out interest due and will redeem the bonds when they mature.

Between issuance and maturity, however, Treasury bonds may be bought and sold multiple times in the open market. This gets complicated, especially as the Federal Reserve may be one of many buyers or sellers.

Interest rates vary over time in response to many variables, including risk and transaction costs, but supply and demand are fundamental. How many people have money to lend? How many want to borrow? The interest rate is the price paid for the temporary use of money — by the U.S. government or anyone else.

That price is revealed in the initial issuing of bonds. If governments want to borrow a lot of money, they will have to pay higher interest rates on bonds in order to find willing buyers. And if many people want to invest safely, but few bonds are available, savers have to accept lower returns.

This leads to some poorly understood outcomes when investments can be bought and sold, but that pay fixed interest rates over long periods. If some owners of such bonds want cash, the only way they can be made attractive to buyers is by lowering the sale price below the face value of the bond.

Return to last week’s column’s contract-for-deed example. Suppose someone has a contract with a $100,000 balance due and paying 6% interest. And suppose that someone wants to cash out by selling the contract. However, other contracts are being offered that pay 8%. The only way the seller of the 6% contract can find a buyer is to offer to sell it for less than the $100,000 due. That will give a potential buyer an effective return on their investment equal to alternatives paying higher nominal interest.

Now consider what happens if the U.S. Treasury is borrowing $100 billion per month at 5% interest on 10-year bonds. But suddenly, China or Japan begins selling tens of billions in U.S. Treasurys they had purchased in the past. And suppose China or Japan offers these at prices that make the effective return on money invested for secondary-market buyers greater than what the U.S. Treasury offers on newly issued ones in the primary market. Regardless of what target the Federal Reserve has set for overnight loan rates, the U.S. Treasury will be forced to pay higher interest rates to issue new 10-year bonds to make up the difference. This effectively takes Powell, Trump and the FOMC out of the equation. Since the market determines the price, it also sets the rate.

And because the rate-setting FOMC has to buy and sell in the secondary market, these high rates trickle down to U.S. households and businesses that are seeking everyday loans. The cost of everything goes up.

That is how a foreign country that owns U.S. Treasury bonds can force up interest rates in the U.S. economy even if the Fed changes nothing. That is the poleaxe Chinese Premier Xi Jinping has over his shoulder as he negotiates tariffs with Trump: effectively, “You can put 50% tariffs on our aluminum and steel, but we can push up the interest rates on U.S. home mortgages, farm operating loans, small-business inventory financing and car loans up a half percent. Or a whole percent. Or two.”

Yes, the Federal Reserve could step in and buy the new U.S. Treasurys with money created out of thin air. But that also can cause inflation. And aside from the obvious household impact, a rising Consumer Price Index would force all lenders to raise interest rates to keep inflation-adjusted returns from falling.

And yes, China might get fewer dollars for its U.S. Treasurys than it paid in purchasing them. And yes, all of this maneuvering might nudge the dollar-renminbi exchange rate in a direction adverse to Chinese exporters. But that change might hurt less than tariffs.

In the real world, this is a complicated problem with more than two parties involved. It is more than just bond prices, interest rates and exchange rates. The key lesson, however, is that as an international debtor, even with a large market and having the world’s reserve currency, like the U.S., is vulnerable to actions by its creditors. This is what Musk and the deficit hawks in Congress understand in opposing the Big Beautiful Bill. But political and economic interests are seldom in sync, especially with a guy like Trump in the White House.

No, we are not Paraguay or Burundi that had to borrow from banks in a foreign currency. No lender can suddenly “call in our loan” or suddenly refuse to renew it. But with foreigners owning $9.1 trillion of U.S. Treasury bonds as of March 2025, of which at least $3.9 trillion is held by foreign governments or their central banks, we don’t have nearly as much leeway as many, in and out of the administration, may assume.

Related Articles

Real World Economics: Bond primer part 1: Understanding the market

Real World Economics: Pragmatism, not globalist ideology, drove U.S. trade policy

Real World Economics: Tax bill full of perverse incentives

Real World Economics: Remember the money supply? It’s our main problem

Real World Economics: GDP is important, but must be kept in context

St. Paul economist and writer Edward Lotterman can be reached at stpaul@edlotterman.com.