Prospect Info: New Jersey Devils Draft Simon Nemec, 2nd Overall

[Devs3cups]

Nemec is much faster. Yes they’re both smooth and fluid skaters but Nemec has a longer stride and is clearly faster.

Absolutely agree, that’s pretty much what I meant with my WJC Smith-Nemec comment. Spot on.

 

[RememberTheName]

Come on man he’s clearly much faster than Ty Smith was. His skating is way more than fine. It’s not elite but it’s very good. You’re just making up nonesense at this point.

His skating has consistently been considered one of his strengths.


Nemec is much faster. Yes they’re both smooth and fluid skaters but Nemec has a longer stride and is clearly faster.

Again, I wasn’t saying Nemec was Ty Smith bad skater. That’s not what I was trying to say at all. I was saying that I’d like to see him improve a little bit because in the NHL, he’s going to be facing a lot more pressure from backcheckers taking the puck through the neutral zone, something I noted that was happening in the Slovak league to him that will probably happen at a higher rate in the NHL. I want the best for Nemec. I really do. I think if he wants to be this dominant force, the #1 thing he should focus on improving is his skating. You saw the way makar can move all around the ice. Nemec will never hit that level, but you definitely saw how having top notch skating can help puck carrying defensemen. Nemec would be a beast with elite level skating. I want to see that happen. His skating is currently fine. It’s passable for the NHL, but I want this kid to be the best player he can be. Having top notch skating will do wonders for this kid and make him one step closer to being a dominant defenseman.

 

[Hisch13r]

I agree, there's a passiveness to his defending that will get torched at the NHL level - I expect his cup of coffee might be a wakeup call if Utica isn't. I'm not impressed with his physical game at all. But I think passiveness is the flipside of the atypical poise of a guy like Nemec. We saw something similar in the early days of No. 27 over here, though obviously the skating isn't even in the same building (unlike Luke).

His natural feel for the pace of the game and the space available to make this or that play - that's my favorite part of his game and why I think he draws those Heiskanen comparisons.

With all this potential, I think this team's next coach is one of the most important decisions Fitz will ever make. I think of Severson as an example of a good player who kind of missed out on greatness because of circumstance but certainly had the tools to be developed more.

Need the Pens to get shit on this year and lose their minds.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Again, I wasn’t saying Nemec was Ty Smith bad skater. That’s not what I was trying to say at all. I was saying that I’d like to see him improve a little bit because in the NHL, he’s going to be facing a lot more pressure from backcheckers taking the puck through the neutral zone, something I noted that was happening in the Slovak league to him that will probably happen at a higher rate in the NHL. I want the best for Nemec. I really do. I think if he wants to be this dominant force, the #1 thing he should focus on improving is his skating. You saw the way makar can move all around the ice. Nemec will never hit that level, but you definitely saw how having top notch skating can help puck carrying defensemen. Nemec would be a beast with elite level skating. I want to see that happen. His skating is currently fine. It’s passable for the NHL, but I want this kid to be the best player he can be. Having top notch skating will do wonders for this kid and make him one step closer to being a dominant defenseman.

Man his skating is top notch already. It’s not fine or passable. It’s really good and is pretty consensusly considered one of his bigger strengths.

Is it Makar level? Not at all. But literally no one is Makar level.
He will be a good skating defensmen in the NHL even without significant improvement.

 

[Hisch13r]

Again, I wasn’t saying Nemec was Ty Smith bad skater. That’s not what I was trying to say at all. I was saying that I’d like to see him improve a little bit because in the NHL, he’s going to be facing a lot more pressure from backcheckers taking the puck through the neutral zone, something I noted that was happening in the Slovak league to him that will probably happen at a higher rate in the NHL. I want the best for Nemec. I really do. I think if he wants to be this dominant force, the #1 thing he should focus on improving is his skating. You saw the way makar can move all around the ice. Nemec will never hit that level, but you definitely saw how having top notch skating can help puck carrying defensemen. Nemec would be a beast with elite level skating. I want to see that happen. His skating is currently fine. It’s passable for the NHL, but I want this kid to be the best player he can be. Having top notch skating will do wonders for this kid and make him one step closer to being a dominant defenseman.

Yeah the main draw of his game is how well he carries the puck in transition (he basically has to do that too since his transition passing metrics are piss poor). I don’t think he’s going to get by doing that in the NHL without a pretty significant skating boost. I agree that he’s a fine and passable skater. Being a fine and passable skater doesn’t cut it when it comes to being a high end puck rushing player and he needs to be that guy. If he’s not that guy then you’re not getting the player you drafted.

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Yeah the main draw of his game is how well he carries the puck in transition (he basically has to do that too since his transition passing metrics are piss poor). I don’t think he’s going to get by doing that in the NHL without a pretty significant skating boost. I agree that he’s a fine and passable skater. Being a fine and passable skater doesn’t cut it when it comes to being a high end puck rushing player and he needs to be that guy. If he’s not that guy then you’re not getting the player you drafted.

He’s clearly more than a fine or passable skater. He’s a very good skater and I have no clue where this is coming from.

 

[RememberTheName]

Man his skating is top notch already. It’s not fine or passable. It’s really good and is pretty consensusly considered one of his bigger strengths.

Is it Makar level? Not at all. But literally no one is Makar level.
He will be a good skating defensmen in the NHL even without significant improvement.

I guess we will have to agree to disagree then.

Either way, when he enters into the NHL, we both want him to look like an elite skater.

 

[StevenToddIves]

We need to temper our discontent. Because we also need to keep in mind that Simon Nemec is an absolutely outstanding prospect at a very difficult to fill position of RD. He's elite in transition, he's an elite playmaker, he's a great skater and he's very solid defensively. Simon Nemec is a high-floor two-way RD who I'd be shocked if he did not wind up at least a very good second pairing player. He'll be an NHL all-situations minute-muncher, and his upside is a 50+ point, two-way first pairing stud. Simon Nemec is, quite simply, a terrific prospect.

[NOTE: I've edited this post, because a couple posters on here disputed my opinions as a bit speculative, and after consideration I agree they were correct. I'm going to stick to commentary on the actual picks, as I'm not GM.]

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Ok, I'm going to do my best here because it was a big night for me and the Red Wings draft party I attended wound up at a multitude of bars.

Here's the sentence you all need to read: Simon Nemec is an outstanding RD prospect, but his selection at #2 overall was not ideal and the result of poor asset management for two years of Fitzgerald's GM tenure.

This is sort of a "good news and bad news" post. No Devils fans should be jumping off bridges, but no Devils fans should be jumping over the moon, either. The truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Because it's this simple: if the Devils took RD Scott Morrow over Chase Stillman last year, this pick is probably not made. If the Devils traded down in 2020 from #20 to take Brock Faber or traded up to #19 to take Braeden Schneider, this pick is probably not made. Heck, if the Devils took Ryan Ufko or Luca Munzenberger instead of Samu Salminen in the 3rd round last year, this pick might be different.

The Devils are bereft at RD. All the system contains is a 3rd pairing stay-at-home guy in Case McCarthy and a likely career AHLer in Reilly Walsh. And for two years, they avoided drafting at the position due to a lack of foresight and strategy. They entered the 2022 draft with a desperate need to fill the position.

Had Montreal drafted Shane Wright at #1, I have no doubt the Devils would have taken Slafkovsky -- another player-type they desperately needed (highly-skilled interior winger to play with Hughes or Hischier). But the Habs went with Slafkovsky, and the Devils did not have a solid contingency plan in place.

The best available player was, without any doubt in my mind, Shane Wright. But Wright is a center and the Devils have a ridiculously outstanding top two at C for the foreseeable future in Hughes and Hischier. Personally, I feel the best strategy would have been to either draft the clear best prospect in Wright or to trade down for RD need with Jiricek/Nemec or interior F need with Gauthier.

GM Tom Fitzgerald has not shown this propensity. In 2020, he made a good pick at #20 with Mukhamadullin, but he surely could have traded down (Washington was trying to trade up for Lapierre) and still had his man. He did not. In 2021, Fitz took Stillman at #29, when he likely could have traded down into the mid-2nd round and still gotten him. Now, he took a player at #2 he could have had at #4 or maybe even #5 or #6.

What was the point of winning the lottery then? In the end, it meant nothing. Fitzgerald is certainly not a bad GM, but I feel he is like the GM equivalent of a good 3rd-line forward -- he's great north/south, but offers little in the way of creativity. There should have been multiple contingency plans in place if Slafkovsky went #1. Wright, or a trade down, or a three-way trade, or whatever. But instead, Fitzgerald just took the player they liked the most at the position they needed the most, regardless of the context. He doesn't trade down, and he clearly doesn't like to think at the fly -- rather he just conflates "making a decision" without considering alternatives which can improve his situation as "conviction". It's not conviction, in fact it's a bit of a white flag.

This is three years in a row that Fitzgerald did not maximize the value of a first-round pick. Mukhamadullin might have been the best available "big defenseman" in 2020 and Stillman might have been the best available "power forward" in 2021 and Nemec might have been the best available "right defenseman" in 2022 -- but none of the three were really in the conversation as the best available player, and that's a problem.

I get that Fitz might not have wanted to trade down with a division rival like Philly or Columbus to gift them a potential franchise C in Wright, but again, to me that's just an admission that the Devils brass was aware how great Wright can truly become. It's a white flag. Could the Devils have gotten #6 and #12 for #2 and the rights to Shane Wright plus a prospect like Bahl or Salminen? I guess we'll never truly know.

That being said -- like with Mukhamadullin -- the pick is not a *failure*, and we need to temper our discontent. Because we also need to keep in mind that Simon Nemec is an absolutely outstanding prospect at a very difficult to fill position of RD. He's elite in transition, he's an elite playmaker, he's a great skater and he's very solid defensively. Simon Nemec is a high-floor two-way RD who I'd be shocked if he did not wind up at least a very good second pairing player. He'll be an NHL all-situations minute-muncher, and his upside is a 50+ point, two-way first pairing stud. Simon Nemec is, quite simply, a terrific prospect.

Ultimately, Simon Nemec is a great prospect, but his pick represented poor asset management. Because, quite frankly, if the Devils take Scott Morrow at #29 last year, I think most in the know would agree the pick at #2 this year would have been Shane Wright. And if the Devils had the foresight to work a contingency plan for Slafkovsky at #1, they would have at the very least had a trade-down in place in case Slaf went #1. But I think the final reaction was "oh f**k, Montreal took Slafkovsky" and then we just filled a need.

Again, the converse argument is that the Devils actually did fill a tremendous need. Nemec is an outstanding RD prospect, and likely enters the Devils prospect pool as the #2 prospect behind only Luke Hughes. It's not a *bad* pick. But I think we'll be wondering for a long time if it were the *right* pick, and on that basis we also have to wonder what might have been if the past three drafts were strategized at a higher level.

Come on STI. There isn’t a realistic trade down where they would likely still get Nemec. He was clearly the guy they wanted.
You also can’t call it a need pick because you had Wright above or because most people did.
Lots of people had Nemec as a top 2 guy. The Devils and Fitz very possibly could’ve.

If you believe what Fitz is saying he saw there as being 4 guys with similar upside.
So if Slafkovsky went and he views Nemec, Wright, and Cooley as similar level prospects with similar upside as he’s suggested than it makes all the sense in the world for him to take Nemec. But that doesn’t mean it’s a need pick.

They were also obviously perfectly aware that Montreal could take Slafkovsky and very likely were extensively prepared for that situation. Suggesting otherwise is dumb. You know full well they went in with a plan and we’re prepared for the possibility of Slafkovsky being taken first. If Nemec was the guy there wanted it’s hard to picture any realistic trade back where they can still get him.

 

[Auto Pilot]

Fitz is a genuine failure. What an absolutely brain dead pick

 

[MasterofGrond]

Fitz is a genuine failure. What an absolutely brain dead pick

heard this one before, try playing something off the 2nd album

 

[Auto Pilot]

heard this one before, try playing something off the 2nd album

Cope harder with the bad pick

 

[MasterofGrond]

if u think this is cope, you clearly weren't there when I watched the devils made the tedenby pick

 

[Lou Bloom]

Ok, I'm going to do my best here because it was a big night for me and the Red Wings draft party I attended wound up at a multitude of bars.

Here's the sentence you all need to read: Simon Nemec is an outstanding RD prospect, but his selection at #2 overall was not ideal and the result of poor asset management for two years of Fitzgerald's GM tenure.

This is sort of a "good news and bad news" post. No Devils fans should be jumping off bridges, but no Devils fans should be jumping over the moon, either. The truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Because it's this simple: if the Devils took RD Scott Morrow over Chase Stillman last year, this pick is probably not made. If the Devils traded down in 2020 from #20 to take Brock Faber or traded up to #19 to take Braeden Schneider, this pick is probably not made. Heck, if the Devils took Ryan Ufko or Luca Munzenberger instead of Samu Salminen in the 3rd round last year, this pick might be different.

The Devils are bereft at RD. All the system contains is a 3rd pairing stay-at-home guy in Case McCarthy and a likely career AHLer in Reilly Walsh. And for two years, they avoided drafting at the position due to a lack of foresight and strategy. They entered the 2022 draft with a desperate need to fill the position.

Had Montreal drafted Shane Wright at #1, I have no doubt the Devils would have taken Slafkovsky -- another player-type they desperately needed (highly-skilled interior winger to play with Hughes or Hischier). But the Habs went with Slafkovsky, and the Devils did not have a solid contingency plan in place.

The best available player was, without any doubt in my mind, Shane Wright. But Wright is a center and the Devils have a ridiculously outstanding top two at C for the foreseeable future in Hughes and Hischier. Personally, I feel the best strategy would have been to either draft the clear best prospect in Wright or to trade down for RD need with Jiricek/Nemec or interior F need with Gauthier.

GM Tom Fitzgerald has not shown this propensity. In 2020, he made a good pick at #20 with Mukhamadullin, but he surely could have traded down (Washington was trying to trade up for Lapierre) and still had his man. He did not. In 2021, Fitz took Stillman at #29, when he likely could have traded down into the mid-2nd round and still gotten him. Now, he took a player at #2 he could have had at #4 or maybe even #5 or #6.

What was the point of winning the lottery then? In the end, it meant nothing. Fitzgerald is certainly not a bad GM, but I feel he is like the GM equivalent of a good 3rd-line forward -- he's great north/south, but offers little in the way of creativity. There should have been multiple contingency plans in place if Slafkovsky went #1. Wright, or a trade down, or a three-way trade, or whatever. But instead, Fitzgerald just took the player they liked the most at the position they needed the most, regardless of the context. He doesn't trade down, and he clearly doesn't like to think at the fly -- rather he just conflates "making a decision" without considering alternatives which can improve his situation as "conviction". It's not conviction, in fact it's a bit of a white flag.

This is three years in a row that Fitzgerald did not maximize the value of a first-round pick. Mukhamadullin might have been the best available "big defenseman" in 2020 and Stillman might have been the best available "power forward" in 2021 and Nemec might have been the best available "right defenseman" in 2022 -- but none of the three were really in the conversation as the best available player, and that's a problem.

I get that Fitz might not have wanted to trade down with a division rival like Philly or Columbus to gift them a potential franchise C in Wright, but again, to me that's just an admission that the Devils brass was aware how great Wright can truly become. It's a white flag. Could the Devils have gotten #6 and #12 for #2 and the rights to Shane Wright plus a prospect like Bahl or Salminen? I guess we'll never truly know.

That being said -- like with Mukhamadullin -- the pick is not a *failure*, and we need to temper our discontent. Because we also need to keep in mind that Simon Nemec is an absolutely outstanding prospect at a very difficult to fill position of RD. He's elite in transition, he's an elite playmaker, he's a great skater and he's very solid defensively. Simon Nemec is a high-floor two-way RD who I'd be shocked if he did not wind up at least a very good second pairing player. He'll be an NHL all-situations minute-muncher, and his upside is a 50+ point, two-way first pairing stud. Simon Nemec is, quite simply, a terrific prospect.

Ultimately, Simon Nemec is a great prospect, but his pick represented poor asset management. Because, quite frankly, if the Devils take Scott Morrow at #29 last year, I think most in the know would agree the pick at #2 this year would have been Shane Wright. And if the Devils had the foresight to work a contingency plan for Slafkovsky at #1, they would have at the very least had a trade-down in place in case Slaf went #1. But I think the final reaction was "oh f**k, Montreal took Slafkovsky" and then we just filled a need.

Again, the converse argument is that the Devils actually did fill a tremendous need. Nemec is an outstanding RD prospect, and likely enters the Devils prospect pool as the #2 prospect behind only Luke Hughes. It's not a *bad* pick. But I think we'll be wondering for a long time if it were the *right* pick, and on that basis we also have to wonder what might have been if the past three drafts were strategized at a higher level.

I'm not sure you can claim Wright was the no doubt BPA when 3 teams disagreed with this evaluation. Montreal is bereft of center talent apart from Suzuki and chose to take Slafkovsky and Arizona chose Cooley over Wright. Fitz claimed multiple times that this draft was unique and there was no clear cut BPA at the top, which is a sentiment many scouts agree on.

I think it's much more likely the Devils, along with Montreal and Arizona had major concerns about Wright's game and rated other players ahead of him.

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

what if we just get a shutdown 2nd pairing guy to go with nemec?

future could be

hughes - hamilton
siegenthaler - nemec
okh/bahl mukh

No way, Hamilton doesn't know what defense is either. You can't pair those 2 guys together.

From the clips I’ve seen, Nemec’s acceleration looked fine to me. I agree with the “passiveness” aspect of his defense, although his positioning looked ok. I’m sure he’ll improve these aspects though.

And this is why he needs to turn pro sooner than later. Staying over there any longer will hurt more than help. Sounds like that is the plan which is good. I think a big reason for his "passiveness" is because he hasn't gotten completely torched for it yet and he's completely excelled offensively. It won't come that easily in the NHL (and maybe AHL?) and he'll adjust.

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

Ok, I'm going to do my best here because it was a big night for me and the Red Wings draft party I attended wound up at a multitude of bars.

Here's the sentence you all need to read: Simon Nemec is an outstanding RD prospect, but his selection at #2 overall was not ideal and the result of poor asset management for two years of Fitzgerald's GM tenure.

This is sort of a "good news and bad news" post. No Devils fans should be jumping off bridges, but no Devils fans should be jumping over the moon, either. The truth lies somewhere in the middle.

Because it's this simple: if the Devils took RD Scott Morrow over Chase Stillman last year, this pick is probably not made. If the Devils traded down in 2020 from #20 to take Brock Faber or traded up to #19 to take Braeden Schneider, this pick is probably not made. Heck, if the Devils took Ryan Ufko or Luca Munzenberger instead of Samu Salminen in the 3rd round last year, this pick might be different.

The Devils are bereft at RD. All the system contains is a 3rd pairing stay-at-home guy in Case McCarthy and a likely career AHLer in Reilly Walsh. And for two years, they avoided drafting at the position due to a lack of foresight and strategy. They entered the 2022 draft with a desperate need to fill the position.

Had Montreal drafted Shane Wright at #1, I have no doubt the Devils would have taken Slafkovsky -- another player-type they desperately needed (highly-skilled interior winger to play with Hughes or Hischier). But the Habs went with Slafkovsky, and the Devils did not have a solid contingency plan in place.

The best available player was, without any doubt in my mind, Shane Wright. But Wright is a center and the Devils have a ridiculously outstanding top two at C for the foreseeable future in Hughes and Hischier. Personally, I feel the best strategy would have been to either draft the clear best prospect in Wright or to trade down for RD need with Jiricek/Nemec or interior F need with Gauthier.

GM Tom Fitzgerald has not shown this propensity. In 2020, he made a good pick at #20 with Mukhamadullin, but he surely could have traded down (Washington was trying to trade up for Lapierre) and still had his man. He did not. In 2021, Fitz took Stillman at #29, when he likely could have traded down into the mid-2nd round and still gotten him. Now, he took a player at #2 he could have had at #4 or maybe even #5 or #6.

What was the point of winning the lottery then? In the end, it meant nothing. Fitzgerald is certainly not a bad GM, but I feel he is like the GM equivalent of a good 3rd-line forward -- he's great north/south, but offers little in the way of creativity. There should have been multiple contingency plans in place if Slafkovsky went #1. Wright, or a trade down, or a three-way trade, or whatever. But instead, Fitzgerald just took the player they liked the most at the position they needed the most, regardless of the context. He doesn't trade down, and he clearly doesn't like to think at the fly -- rather he just conflates "making a decision" without considering alternatives which can improve his situation as "conviction". It's not conviction, in fact it's a bit of a white flag.

This is three years in a row that Fitzgerald did not maximize the value of a first-round pick. Mukhamadullin might have been the best available "big defenseman" in 2020 and Stillman might have been the best available "power forward" in 2021 and Nemec might have been the best available "right defenseman" in 2022 -- but none of the three were really in the conversation as the best available player, and that's a problem.

I get that Fitz might not have wanted to trade down with a division rival like Philly or Columbus to gift them a potential franchise C in Wright, but again, to me that's just an admission that the Devils brass was aware how great Wright can truly become. It's a white flag. Could the Devils have gotten #6 and #12 for #2 and the rights to Shane Wright plus a prospect like Bahl or Salminen? I guess we'll never truly know.

That being said -- like with Mukhamadullin -- the pick is not a *failure*, and we need to temper our discontent. Because we also need to keep in mind that Simon Nemec is an absolutely outstanding prospect at a very difficult to fill position of RD. He's elite in transition, he's an elite playmaker, he's a great skater and he's very solid defensively. Simon Nemec is a high-floor two-way RD who I'd be shocked if he did not wind up at least a very good second pairing player. He'll be an NHL all-situations minute-muncher, and his upside is a 50+ point, two-way first pairing stud. Simon Nemec is, quite simply, a terrific prospect.

Ultimately, Simon Nemec is a great prospect, but his pick represented poor asset management. Because, quite frankly, if the Devils take Scott Morrow at #29 last year, I think most in the know would agree the pick at #2 this year would have been Shane Wright. And if the Devils had the foresight to work a contingency plan for Slafkovsky at #1, they would have at the very least had a trade-down in place in case Slaf went #1. But I think the final reaction was "oh f**k, Montreal took Slafkovsky" and then we just filled a need.

Again, the converse argument is that the Devils actually did fill a tremendous need. Nemec is an outstanding RD prospect, and likely enters the Devils prospect pool as the #2 prospect behind only Luke Hughes. It's not a *bad* pick. But I think we'll be wondering for a long time if it were the *right* pick, and on that basis we also have to wonder what might have been if the past three drafts were strategized at a higher level.

Lots of assumptions here. You have no idea if they would've picked someone else had they picked Morrow or whoever else in other drafts. Simply put, they could've thought Nemec was the next best prospect and given that Seattle was interested as well they wouldn't have been able to trade down.

I've repeated this to several posters, if it was simply a pick for need why didn't they pick Jiricek?

I'm sorry but I don't believe for one second this was some pick just based on need. Whether they evaluated the prospects wrong is a completely different story that would have to be looked at in couple years.

 

[StevenToddIves]

Lots of assumptions here. You have no idea if they would've picked someone else had they picked Morrow or whoever else in other drafts. Simply put, they could've thought Nemec was the next best prospect and given that Seattle was interested as well they wouldn't have been able to trade down.

I've repeated this to several posters, if it was simply a pick for need why didn't they pick Jiricek?

I'm sorry but I don't believe for one second this was some pick just based on need. Whether they evaluated the prospects wrong is a completely different story that would have to be looked at in couple years.

It's a good point, but at some point you have to study the teams and develop an MO for their drafting patterns.

[NOTE: I edited this post because @PKs Broken Stick was debating a controversial statement I made, and after much internal deliberation I decided he was right and I was wrong, so there was no point continuing the discussion.]

 

[StevenToddIves]

I'm not sure you can claim Wright was the no doubt BPA when 3 teams disagreed with this evaluation. Montreal is bereft of center talent apart from Suzuki and chose to take Slafkovsky and Arizona chose Cooley over Wright. Fitz claimed multiple times that this draft was unique and there was no clear cut BPA at the top, which is a sentiment many scouts agree on.

I think it's much more likely the Devils, along with Montreal and Arizona had major concerns about Wright's game and rated other players ahead of him.

This is indeed possible. Slafkovsky could have been seen as better than Wright by Montreal, it was razor-thin between them.

[NOTE: I edited this post because @Lou Bloom disputed one of my knee-jerk opinions and, after careful deliberation, I decided @Lou Bloom was completely in the right and myself in the wrong.]

 

[PKs Broken Stick]

It's a good point, but at some point you have to study the teams and develop an MO for their drafting patterns.

This is three straight years where the Devils have leaned towards a perceived need (2020: Mukhamadullin, big D; 2021: Chase Stillman, power F; 2022 Simon Nemec: RD) which certainly did not seem like the "best available player" at the spot they took them.

It's not sour grapes, I really like Nemec. He was my #4 overall player in the draft. It's just me trying to be realistic. Fitzgerald has apparently specified needs and went after those needs at various points in the draft, with no willingness to trade down or to maximize value of assets. It's not the worst sin in the world and the Devils now have a top 2 prospect pool in the entire NHL.

I disagree because I didn't even think of Nemec as a possible pick. It was Wright, Jiricek, or Gauthier as players I thought Fitz was targeting. "bpa", "need" and "need". I don't classify Nemec as a need pick at all.

 

[StevenToddIves]

I disagree because I didn't even think of Nemec as a possible pick. It was Wright, Jiricek, or Gauthier as players I thought Fitz was targeting. "bpa", "need" and "need". I don't classify Nemec as a need pick at all.

Well, the good news is that we absolutely need Nemec. And he's a terrific prospect -- I'd immediately slot him at #2 between Luke Hughes and Holtz/Gritsyuk on the Devils prospect board.

 

[TheSituation]

He’s an outstanding prospect. People are salty because they sold themselves on Wright or Slafkovsky. I’m telling you this kid is legit. Just enjoy his development.

He's great, but I'm not taking your word for it. You literally made up analytics to downplay Slaf and cried about not getting Debrincat before saying we're too small of a team.

 

[MadDevil]

heard this one before, try playing something off the 2nd album

All of his songs are the same. They just have different names.

(Insert Coach) Sucks!

(Insert GM) Sucks!

Literally bitches and moans about the same shit, over and over and over again.

 

[MadDevil]

Didn't somebody say Seattle was heavily interested in Nemec at #4? If that's so, then there really wasn't a trade down that would have resulted in us still getting him. And if you feel strongly enough about him to take him at #4, why not just take him at #2?

As always, we don't know what our board looked like., so it's entirely possible Nemec was just #2 on the board after Slaf for us, regardless of positional need. Generally I agree that drafting for positional need this high is not great, and I personally would have preferrred Wright, but lord knows I've been wrong on plenty of draft picks over the years. I was once a sweet summer child and thought David Hale was going to be Scott Stevens Lite.

 

[Bcap88]

Hughes x2,hischier,mercer,Bratt,sharangovich,hamilton and nemec are great foundational pieces for us. Now if Blackwood and smith get back on track we can really be cooking with gasoline soon

Didn't somebody say Seattle was heavily interested in Nemec at #4? If that's so, then there really wasn't a trade down that would have resulted in us still getting him. And if you feel strongly enough about him to take him at #4, why not just take him at #2?

As always, we don't know what our board looked like., so it's entirely possible Nemec was just #2 on the board after Slaf for us, regardless of positional need. Generally I agree that drafting for positional need this high is not great, and I personally would have preferrred Wright, but lord knows I've been wrong on plenty of draft picks over the years. I was once a sweet summer child and thought David Hale was going to be Scott Stevens Lite.

Could very well seen nj set on slaf and then had wright,nemec,cooley seperated by a razor thin margin thus resulting in nemec by need. Which I’m ok with

 

[Captain3rdLine]

Hughes x2,hischier,mercer,Bratt,sharangovich,hamilton and nemec are great foundational pieces for us. Now if Blackwood and smith get back on track we can really be cooking with gasoline soon

Even if Smith turns things around I don’t really see where he fits in. Clearly isn’t fitzy type of defensemen, isn’t strong defensively even at his best and isn’t really needed for the type of role he plays. Is he gonna run the powerplay for us now or in the future with Dougie and Severson right now and Hughes, Nemec, and Mukhammadullin coming?