Sunny Mehta made his first major move as the general manager of the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday. It was announced that the team shipped defenseman Simon Nemec to Calgary in exchange for a 2026 second-round pick and first round picks in 2027 and 2028. The Devils also offloaded forward Maxim Tsyplakov while the Flames included prospect defenseman Étienne Morin in the deal.

The second-round pick belong to the New York Rangers and is the 35th-overall selection in Friday’s draft. Meanwhile, the 2027 first-round pick belongs to Vegas and the 2028 first-round selection belongs to Colorado. Each of those picks have a top-10 condition on it. If either end up being a top-10 selection in that respective year, the pick will slide to the following season with no protections.

The Interesting Case That Is Simon Nemec

Nemec certainly did not develop as the Devils hoped after they selected him second overall in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft. The noise around him being on the organizational chopping block got louder and louder as the 2025-26 season went on. A large reason why is because Nemec was due a new contract and is likely going to be receiving one that his production had yet to show he is worth.

Earlier in the season, we here at Devils Army Network actually published an article analyzing why the organization should part ways with their young defenseman. Before getting into the deeper reasons why, the short of it was outside of a month-long shooting heater, Nemec’s impacts and overall game had not shown too much promise.

To start from the beginning, Nemec did post a very encouraging debut 2023-24 season. He posted 19 points over 60 games with on-ice impacts that were good enough. Specifically, his even strength offensive goals above replacement ranked 35th among 218 defenseman to play at least 500 minutes. There were struggles defensively, as many would expect for such a young defenseman, but the overall picture was encouraging.

Following that encouraging start, it was mostly downhill from there. Nemec took a large step back in 2024-25. He only skated in 27 regular season games with the Devils and posted four points. His expected goals-for percentage (xGF%) of 37.67 ranked last on the team (minimum seven games played). Among 244 defenseman to play at least 250 minutes of five-on-five ice time, his xGF% ranked 243. The defensive struggles carried over from his rookie season and accelerated while the offense was not there to balance it out.

After scoring an overtime goal against Carolina in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs, while playing decently well overall in the series (49.17 xGF% against a dominate Hurricanes team), expectations were high as several thought he was turning a corner entering 2025-2026. Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Nemec scored six goals in the month of December, largely due to a hat trick against Chicago. However, over his last 43 games, he only had 11 total points. A large reason for this originally hot start was the Devils’ soon-to regress shooting percentage of 11.98% with Nemec on the ice. That figure then did indeed regress over the last 43 games (7.02%), resulting in the offense drying up and his still lackluster defensive game becoming more of an issue.

Overall, here is how Nemec’s possession metrics ranked among his teammates in 2025-26:

• Corsi-for percentage: 18th
• Expected goals-for percentage: 17th
• Scoring chance-for percentage: 18th
• High-danger Corsi-for percentage: 19th

Note, the above are five-on-five statistics only.

Basically, Nemec’s strong start to the season was aided directly by unsustainable on-ice shooting percentages. The defensive metrics were troublesome all season long, as his on-ice defensive metrics according to Evolving Hockey ranked in the league’s 18th percentile.

Bottom-line is through Nemec’s first 159 career game he has flashed some terrific offensive skills, but his defensive game is a long ways off making his overall on-ice impacts only so-so. That is not a player who the Devils should feel comfortable dishing out a major extension to. Thus, why the trade made perfect sense.

The Other Players Involved

Outside of the picks, the Devils also received young defenseman Étienne Morin in the deal. Morin, 21, was drafted in the second-round (48th overall) in 2023. The 6-foot-1, left-handed defenseman played his junior hockey for the Moncton Wildcats of the QMJHL.

Across 251 total games and four seasons with Moncton, he posted 212 points. Notably, he had a 72-point season (67 games) in his draft year, before regressing in 2023-24 (49 points in 58 games). His final season in the QMJHL he posted 58 points in 62 games and joined the Calgary Wranglers (AHL) to finish the season. In his first full professional season, he played 42 games in the AHL posting seven points. He also played in seven ECHL games where he posted three points.

Prior to being drafted, Elite Prospects had the following to say in their 2023 NHL Draft Guide, “Morin is a very physical defender, throwing hits all game long. He’s a skilled shooter off the point alongside a bit of activation. He has creative breakout ideas, using a double cut to escape pressure, drawing incoming pressure to pass through it, and completing quick possession plays through multiple forecheckers.”

Morin projects as AHL depth for Utica this upcoming season. His ceiling is likely a seventh defenseman at the NHL level. He should be able to play in all scenarios for Utica. He also has championship-winning pedigree, as he was apart of the 2025 QMJHL championship team and played in the Memorial Cup that same season.

The other player involved in the deal, outside of Nemec and Morin, was Maxim Tsyplakov. The Devils acquired the 27-year-old Russian in the deal that shed the entire contract of Ondrej Palat and shipped him to the New York Islanders at the 2025-26 trade deadline. Tsyplakov, who posted 35 points in his rookie season for the Islanders, only had two points for the Devils in the final 22 games of the season. In all, he posted four points across 49 games with the Islanders and Devils in 2025-26.

The important part of shipping Tsyplakov to Calgary is shedding the last season of his $2.25 million salary. With moving him, the Devils now have $13,152,500 in cap space according to PuckPedia. Some much needed breathing room.

Takeaways

Mehta’s first deal as a general manger in the NHL appears to be a tidy piece of business.

He moved on from a young defenseman who had not established himself yet and overall has had subpar overall impacts. In doing so, he acquired two future first-round picks, a second-round pick that is only a few picks removed from the first round, and shedded a negative asset that cleared $2.25 million in cap space. Not to mention, Nemec is due a massive extension (AFP Analytics projects a seven-year, $56,424,550), one that the Devils, based off play thus far, are best to avoid.

Those picks the team acquired can now be used to acquire a top-six, controllable winger that the team desperately needs. If they are not repurposed to do that, which seems like the most likely outcome, they can be kept and used to revitalize a farm system that has been steadily drying in recent years.

The basic takeaway: everything about this deal makes sense.