Considered an offensive defenseman, Schneider played 1,289 games in the National Hockey League with ten different teams, scoring 233 goals and totaling 743 points.

Under the tutelage of coach Normand "Bill" Belisle, Schneider and his team won three of the school's 26 straight Rhode Island state hockey championships.

He left Mount Saint Charles after his junior year and joined the Cornwall Royals of the Ontario Hockey League.

He would spend the entirety of 1988–89 with Cornwall before splitting the next season between Montreal and their American Hockey League farm team, the Sherbrooke Canadiens.

Schneider earned a full-time NHL roster spot in the 1990–91 season and, two years later, he won the 1993 Stanley Cup with the Canadiens, defeating Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings in five games.

He was a contract hold-out as a restricted free agent prior to the 1998–99 season, reportedly seeking a $3.3 million salary with the Maple Leafs.

After appearing in his second All-Star Game in 2003, Schneider was dealt at the trade deadline to the Detroit Red Wings for two players and two draft picks.

[8] Although the Red Wings had traded for Schneider as a rental player to bolster their Stanley Cup run, they were upset in the first round by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

Schneider was re-signed by Detroit in the off-season to a two-year deal[9] and he eventually played another three seasons with the Red Wings that included a career-high 21 goals and 59 points in 2005–06.

Schneider did not debut with the Ducks until a couple months into the season, as he sustained a broken ankle in a pre-season game against the Los Angeles Kings.

With All-Star defensemen Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer ahead of him on the depth chart, Schneider was placed on waivers, but cleared.

[17] After having undergone off-season shoulder surgery, Schneider missed the first 10 games of the 2009–10 season and made his Canucks debut on October 25 in a 2–0 win against the Edmonton Oilers.

[22] His first significant project with the NHLPA has been adjustments to the head-shot and boarding rules, alongside former Red Wings teammate Brendan Shanahan.

A serious groin/abdominal injury kept Schneider from consideration for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and, although he was chosen to his second World Cup tournament in 2004, he pulled out of the games due to a lack of insurance (he was not signed to an NHL team that summer).