Simon Nemec was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2022 draft, the kind of prospect a franchise builds a blue line around for a decade. Instead, on June 24, the Devils shipped him to Calgary along with forward Maxim Tsyplakov for defenseman prospect Etienne Morin, two conditional first-round picks and a 2026 second-rounder. It was new general manager Sunny Mehta's first big swing after replacing Tom Fitzgerald that spring, and it ended what turned out to be a genuinely uncomfortable run for Nemec in New Jersey.
Now Nemec is opening up about just how uncomfortable, and Chris Johnston's new piece for The Athletic is the read everyone in the hockey world is passing around this morning.
New, for @TheAthletic: Šimon Nemec opens up about the trade to Calgary, his 'hard' experience in New Jersey and what he borrowed from Zdeno Chara this summer to prepare for his fresh opportunity: t.co/ZeHDVyAT9m
The frustration tracks with what Nemec was saying publicly even before the trade. He posted a career-high 26 points in 68 games last season but was stuck behind Dougie Hamilton and Luke Hughes on the power play, logging barely a minute of man-advantage time a night compared to their two-plus minutes apiece. For a former No. 2 pick who believes he should be running a unit, that's a tough pill, and it's the kind of thing that curdles into exactly the 'hard' experience he's now describing on the record.
According to Johnston's reporting, Nemec spent part of his summer leaning on advice from Zdeno Chara to get his body and mindset right for the reset in Calgary — a fitting connection given Chara's reputation as the sport's ultimate offseason-training cautionary tale for everyone else's laziness. Pairing a 22-year-old trying to relaunch his career with a 6-foot-9 workout savant who played into his mid-40s is the kind of offseason move that doesn't show up on a stat sheet but says plenty about how seriously Nemec is taking this.
The Devils missing the playoffs at 42-27-3 and the Flames also missing at 34-39-9 means neither side traded from a position of urgency — this wasn't a contender cashing in prospect capital. It reads more like a change-of-scenery move for a player who'd already told teams he wanted to be a No. 1 power-play option, something New Jersey simply wasn't going to give him with Hamilton and Hughes entrenched.
For Calgary, the appeal is obvious: land a former top-two pick still just 22 years old for futures and a prospect, and bet that a clean slate plus a real role turns those career-high numbers into a floor instead of a ceiling. For the Devils, the swing under Mehta is a signal that the front office is willing to move a former top pick if the fit isn't working — a philosophy the rest of the roster should probably take note of.