After a whirlwind off-season, Simon Nemec is looking forward to making the most of his new opportunity with the Calgary Flames. He's also ready to show the New Jersey Devils they made a big mistake by trading him.
Undervalued and underutilized, Simon Nemec is the poster boy for how not to develop a top prospect into a superstar.
In 2022, the New Jersey Devils selected the Slovakian defenseman with the No. 2-overall pick. Four years later, after rushing Nemec to North America and then bouncing up-and-down between the NHL and the minors, he was traded to the Calgary Flames in what is basically an admission of failure from the past administration.
Nemec might not have asked to be traded. At the same time, he isn't sad to say goodbye to a place where he was given the chance to succeed.
"I think I couldn’t play my best hockey," Nemec told The Hockey News' David Alter during last week's NHL/NHLPA European Player Media Tour in Munich. "I wasn’t given the opportunity that I want and at the end of the day they decided it’s best for me — and for them — to get traded. And I’m happy with that."
When he was drafted in 2022, the hope was that New Jersey was getting a future franchise defenseman. At the time, THN's Ryan Kennedy considered Nemec the top blue-liner in the draft, because of "mobility, his ability to defend and the offensive skills he brings to the back end."
The Devils liked all those tools as well. But somewhere along the way, things started to go wrong between the organization and a prospect who never found his footing. Part of the problem was a lack of patience. Nemec, who was brought over from Slovakia immediately after the draft, was rushed into the NHL when injuries decimated the Devils' blue line.
The jump proved too big for a teenager who was trying to adjust to living in another country and playing on a smaller ice surface, as well as learning to compete against the best players in the world.
A bigger problem was that the Devils soon found themselves with too many defensemen and not enough jobs.
The year before picking Nemec, New Jersey had selected Luke Hughes with the the fourth-overall pick in 2021. One round after selecting Nemec, the team also drafted Seamus Casey. And two years later, the Devils drafted Anton Silayev with the 10th-overall pick.
Suddenly, Nemec found himself as the odd-man out and biding his time in the minors. This past season was the first time he played a full-time role. Even then, he was down in the depth chart, logging less than 20 minutes a night and was stuck behind Hughes and Dougie Hamilton on the power play.
"I wanted to be No. 1 defenseman, to play power play and everything," he said. "But two other guys wanted to do the same (Hughes and Hamilton), so it’s tough to manage that"
Still, Nemec did have a career season in 2025-26, scoring 11 goals and 26 points in 68 games. Then again, he was also a healthy scratch twice on a team that did not qualify for the playoffs.
By the end of the season, it was clear that Nemec was looking for a change of scenery.
With Sunny Mehta hired as the new GM, the Devils traded the 22-year-old and Maxim Tsyplakov to the Flames in exchange for conditional first-round picks in the 2027 NHL Draft and 2028 NHL Draft, a second-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft and defenseman prospect Etienne Morin.
Immediately after being traded, Nemec signed a five-year contract extension with a $7.25-million cap hit.
"I wanted to get it done," said Nemec. "They (the Flames) stepped in and did a huge trade for me, so there was nothing to think about."
The trade reunites Nemec, who represented Slovakia at the 2026 Olympics, with fellow countrymen Samuel Honzek and Martin Pospisil.
"It’s a new place, it’s a new opportunity," he said. "I have other Slovak guys there so yeah, I’m excited about coming in. I just heard it’s (Calgary) unbelievable. The nation is incredible."
In Calgary, Nemec should receive the opportunity he was waiting for in New Jersey. It's not difficult to imagine a scenario where Nemec and Zayne Parekh, who was selected ninth overall in 2024, are running the offense from the backend.
As for the Devils, Nemec did not hold back in what will be motivating him this upcoming season.
"I just want to prove to everyone that New Jersey wasn’t right," he said.
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