Profile

Simon Nemec is an 18-year-old right-shot defenseman out of Slovakia. The blueliner is listed at six-foot-one and 192 pounds. Nemec has played his entire pre-draft career in his home country of Slovakia. He has also logged a ton of minutes for Slovakia in international tournaments.

In the final 2022 Draft Prospect Rankings, Nemec was ranked third among European skaters and first among defenseman.

The Statistics

Nemec’s career, which started in 2017-18, has been played entirely in Slovakia. In his first year playing juniors, the 13-year-old put up 21 points in 44 games in the country’s under-18 league. The following year, also playing in the under-18 league, he scored 10 goals and 35 points in 52 games.

In 2019-20, Nemec played in Slovakia’s under-20 league, minor league, and top professional league. He put up 21 points in 45 total games across those three leagues, including three in 12 professional games. He did all this all as a 15-16 year old.

Last year, the then 17-year-old blueliner played his first full season in Slovakia’s top professional league. In 42 total games between the regular season and playoffs, he scored two goals and totaled 19 points. Nemec also played 10 games combined at the World Junior Championships and regular World Championships tallying five assists in those two tournaments for Slovakia.

This season Nemec has unsurprisingly had his best yet. He scored 26 points in 39 regular season games, before lighting it up in the Slovakian league playoffs. In the 19 postseason games he played, Nemec scored five goals and registered 17 points.

Following that he scored six points in eight games at the World Championship, which ended a busy year internationally for him. Nemec played 25 total games on the international level, scoring two goals and registered 13 assists for 15 points across that time. That includes playing in seven games to help Slovakia win its first ever medal at the 2022 Olympic Games.

Nemec’s six points at the World Championships this year is the most by any 18-year-old defenseman in tournament history. His 0.75 points-per-game as an 18-year0old is better than Calder Trophy winner Moritz Seider, as well as Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Miro Heiskanen, Quinn Hughes, and Roman Josi.

Nemec’s Scouting Report

Strengths

Nemec’s biggest strength is just the size of his toolkit. The defenseman has incredible quickness and reaction time. While defending, Nemec can break up passes, or knock the puck off an attacking player’s stick with an incredibly-timed poke check.

When the puck is on his stick, Nemec is well able to execute plays and passes to his teammates. He has an excellent first pass and good playmaking ability in the offensive zone. Nemec’s high hockey IQ allows him to work wonders as a quarterback on the power play. He’s very good with shot selection and figuring out the perfect opportunity to get that shot off.

On top of all that, Nemec has a great skating ability. He has a solid first step, and great evasiveness that is almost necessary for young defenseman to become stars in today’s game. Add all of this up, and you have the projected top defenseman in the draft.

Weaknesses

After describing all of his strengths, it might seem like Simon Nemec has no weaknesses. However, like basically all prospects, that is not true. 

The first important item of his game to note is that sometimes Nemec can become over confident with his ability. More than most would like to see, Simon will attempt passes or elusive moves that he just doesn’t have the skill to pull off. Most of the time, those plays result in turnovers.

As mentioned earlier, Nemec features fantastic shot selection. However, knowing how and when to shoot the puck doesn’t help much when the shot itself is a work in progress. Nemec has proven that he has the ability to let one fly, but it needs to be on display more often for shot quality to not be a concern.

Fit With the New Jersey Devils

Nemec’s fit with the Devils all depends on one thing: what happens with Damon Severson. Nemec is a right-shot defenseman, which any team would gladly take. However, the Devils’ right side is already pretty jam packed with Dougie Hamilton and Damon Severson playing there. 

Having one of those two or Simon Nemec playing third pair in a few years just wouldn’t make sense. That is why if the Devils plan on trading or not re-signing Damon Severson, the selection of Nemec would make a ton of sense. On the other hand, if the Devils plan of keeping Severson, selecting Nemec just wouldn’t be an appropriate pick. Especially at second overall.

Even if the Devils do not see Damon Severson in the red and black past next season. Drafting Nemec at second overall is probably not the wisest move given the skill level of the forwards at the top of this draft. Furthermore, the Devils just spent a fourth overall pick on a defenseman last season.

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