OMAHA, Neb. — The smoke machine filled the air inside Ralston Arena for several minutes before a disco ball was wheeled out to center ice. The lights went down. A knight in full-body armor emerged, wielding a sword.



The Omaha Lancers put on quite the pregame show, and it was a tall, lanky goaltender from Switzerland who earned the loudest cheers from the home crowd on a frigid Friday night before taking his place in net.



Akira Schmid was 1,200 miles away from where he thought he’d be when the calendar turned to March. His first season after leaving home and moving to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean to pursue his dream did not go the way he planned.



But, a little more than four months after being stranded in Western Canada for a month without a team, Schmid has found a home in America’s heartland. And the Devils may have found a late-round gem in the process.



“The transition coming over here is a tough one,” Devils...