Well, I like both these guys. that said, they are different types of players. Speed, quickness, stick-handling all go to Schmaltz over Cat. Hockey IQ, positioning, shot release, shot accuracy and overall scoring ability to the Cat (by a wide margin). Both are not bad defensively. passing? Well... since that is essentially all that Schmaltz does, he passes much more often. But, with time, opponents will realize that he will almost never shoot and look pass first almost every time --- people will jump his passes. He does pass well though. The Cat passes well too --- but we have seen much less of that from him. Tough to compare just yet.
Anyway, if Schmaltz learns to shoot and can be coached away from his pass only perspective --- his upside with time will be much improved. That said, the Cat's performance, especially given his youth and inexperience --- even if Schmaltz learns to shoot --- the Cat's upside exceeds that for Schmaltz by a substantive amount. By this I mean if i were to extrapolate out three years from now, i would predict at that time Debrincat will have distanced himself from Schmaltz pretty clearly (with Schmaltz being good to very good and Cat being very good, at the least, to, at best, being a star player). I do not see Schmaltz ever being a star. But he will be good (maybe very good) and i am glad we have him. Cat? he is a potential star.