Simon Nemec To Play In World Junior Championship
The Canadian team got a pair of reinforcements this week when Brandt Clarke and Shane Wright were loaned away from their NHL organizations, and it appears as though the Slovakian team will get a similar boost. Miroslav Satan, who is now the president of the Slovak Ice Hockey Federation, confirms that the New Jersey Devils will be loaning Simon Nemec to play at the tournament.
Nemec will be joined by Montreal Canadiens first-round pick Filip Mesar, who is currently playing with the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL. Satan did not mention Juraj Slafkovsky, likely meaning that the first-overall pick will remain with the Canadiens instead of playing the junior tournament.
The 18-year-old Nemec was the second-overall pick this summer, giving Slovakia a sweep of the top two spots. That was a historic moment for the country’s hockey program, just as the bronze medal at the 2022 Olympics proved to be.
At the World Juniors, Slovakia has never placed higher than third. They took home a bronze in 2009, thanks to an incredible tournament from Tomas Tatar, and in 1999, thanks to Marian Gaborik and Ladislav Nagy (in 1993, just after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, the two nations competed together and finished in third place).
With Nemec, Mesar, and other impressive youngsters in place (including 17-year-old Dalibor Dvorsky, a top prospect for the 2023 draft), Slovakia will try to reach the gold medal game for the first time.
New Jersey Devils Send Simon Nemec To AHL
Second-overall pick Simon Nemec appeared to make the New Jersey Devils roster out of camp, but the way he had been talking about it, there seemed to be something more to his stay. Today, the team has sent Nemec down to the AHL and recalled Kevin Bahl, confirming it was just a salary cap maneuver to maximize the long-term injury relief pool created by moving Jonathan Bernier‘s contract there.
Nemec, 18, is still extremely raw as a prospect, despite playing the last few seasons in a men’s league in Slovakia. A tendency to rove all over the ice and sometimes forget about his defensive responsibilities is what makes him special, but also something he’ll have to polish up before making a real impact at the NHL level.
He’ll be able to do that in the AHL, where he should get huge minutes with the Utica Comets for the time being. Nemec even admitted as such when speaking with Mike Morreale of NHL.com yesterday. He explained that “Utica is fine for me because I need to play a lot of minutes,” and said he is perfectly fine with the demotion. In fact, that’s what Nemec has maintained since the moment they drafted him. He wants to play in North America this season, regardless of whether that meant the NHL or AHL.
Not only does Nemec need work, but Bahl has also played his way onto the roster with a strong preseason performance. The pressure from being the return for Taylor Hall seems to have waned a bit and now expectations for the 22-year-old defenseman have leveled off. While Bahl may never be a true top-pairing option, his 6’6″ frame and good mobility suggest he’ll be able to handle himself just fine at the higher level. In 17 games last season with the Devils he showed flashes of that potential and this season might be able to shake free of any doubts.
Nemec will be back, in time, but for now he’ll be focused on his development in the minor leagues. Fans of the Comets certainly won’t complain, as they get to see the youngster up close.
Post-Draft Notes: Wild Free Agents, Nemec, Vlasic
The Minnesota Wild just wrapped up an impressive eight-man draft class, and now, with the free-agent market set to open next Wednesday, they focus their attention to the upcoming group of free agents. The team has a few players set to hit free agency, although they took one of those players off the market yesterday, re-signing Marc-Andre Fleury to a two-year extension. Two players Wild GM Bill Guerin won’t be giving extensions, as relayed by Michael Russo of The Athletic, are mid-season pickup Nicolas Deslauriers and Minneapolis native Nick Bjugstad.
The Wild acquired Deslauriers, 31, from the Anaheim Ducks for a third-round pick last season, and he added some grit and physicality to the bottom of their lineup. He looked like a decent fit in Minnesota, but with the pressure of the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts heavily squeezing Guerin’s financial flexibility this summer, it seems they don’t have the necessary cap room to retain him. Guerin did say that he expects Deslauriers to garner “a lot of interest,” which likely means Deslauriers has priced himself out of a return to the state of hockey. Bjugstad is coming off a year where he was a depth forward for the Wild, and he has not scored double-digit goals or more than 20 points since his impressive 49-point 2018-19 campaign with the Florida Panthers. It’s unlikely that Bjugstad sees the same level of leaguewide interest as Deslauriers when he too hits the market.
Now, for some other notes on information that has come out after the draft:
- The New Jersey Devils didn’t flinch when they saw long-time consensus number-one prospect Shane Wright surprisingly on the board after the Montreal Canadiens took Juraj Slafkovsky first overall. They stuck to their board and selected Simon Nemec, an extremely talented defenseman and Slafkovsky’s countryman. The Devils made a bold choice, and won’t waste any time getting Nemec into the fold in their organization. As relayed by Amanda Stein of NHL.com, Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald says he spoke to Nemec’s agent and “expects to sign” Nemec to his entry-level contract this week. Stein notes that Nemec expressed a willingness to play in the AHL at the NHL Combine in Buffalo, and Nemec joining the Utica Comets for 2022-23 is beginning to seem like the most likely outcome.
- Earlier in July, we covered the San Jose Sharks’ situation with defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic and whether he would be bought out by the team after 16 seasons in teal. Today, Vlasic told The Athletic’s Corey Masisiak that “it doesn’t look like” he’ll be bought out and that he’s “excited” for a fresh start under a new coaching staff and a new GM in Mike Grier, who he played with for three seasons. Vlasic’s past few years haven’t been up to the standard he established earlier in his career. If the Sharks have any hope of returning to contention next season, as the organization fully intends to do, Vlasic will need to play like the $7MM defenseman he once was.
New Jersey Devils Select Simon Nemec Second Overall
It’s a clean sweep of the top two spots for Slovakia. After watching Juraj Slafkovsky go first overall, the New Jersey Devils strode to the podium and picked countryman Simon Nemec second, grabbing the defenseman they so desperately wanted.
If you wanted to pick a defenseman that screamed “modern hockey” it is Nemec, who floats around the ice creating offense whenever he touches the puck. Already a star in the Slovakian league, he represents that top-pairing, right-handed shot defenseman that is so highly sought after in the NHL.
Another member of the bronze medal-winning Slovakian Olympic team, and this year’s World Championship club, Nemec is closer to the NHL than most defensemen drafted out of Europe. He’s already proven his skill at a high level and could step into the league within just a few years.
In New Jersey, he’ll join a group of talented young players that is growing quickly and will help make the organization an interesting contender down the road.