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

[Blackjack]

Quite a few, with some having him as the best player in the draft.

I don’t believe this at all.

 

[Lou is God]

The Athletic's Scott Wheeler has Nemec pegged as the second-best player in the entire class and TSN's Bob McKenzie has him at No. 4.

For Nitra in Tipos Extraliga, Slovakia's top pro league, Nemec put up eye-opening numbers with a goal and 25 assists over 39 games. In the playoffs, he was nearly a point-per-game player with five goals and 12 assists through 19 games. He won a bronze medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics with the Slovakia national team and had a strong 2022 IIHF World Championship, putting up six points (one goal, five assists) in eight games.

"I expect him to become the best defenseman out of Slovakia since Zdeno Chara and a true No. 2 (and maybe even No. 1) guy who plays an effective, efficient, play-driving modern game," Wheeler wrote earlier this month. "The game just comes easy to him."

If there at No. 5, D-man with eye-opening game will give Flyers a lot to ponder

With the fifth overall pick in the 2022 NHL draft, the Flyers could have a shot at Simon Nemec, one of the top defensemen in this class. By Jordan Hall

www.nbcsports.com

 

[Wierzbowski426]

I've heard everything from this guy is nothing more than a third pairing pp qb if that to he's going to potentially win Norris trophy's, to he's really no better than Reilly Walsh.

His defense is terrible, worst we've ever seen. No its, great, he will be amazing etc ad infinitum.

I think the draft is a huge crap shoot, the "experts" are wrong way way way more often than any of them would like to admit (some exceptions obviously), and no one has a crystal ball. How can there be such a wide range of opinions on a player and yet at the same time, everyone is so sure their opinion is correct? We all need a snickers and to just calm the f down.

What would the reaction on this forum have been to us selecting Makar? This board outside of like 2 posters maybe would have lost their damn minds.

I'm pretty surprised we didn't take wright just due to his history with regard to how he's consistently been viewed, but Nemec seems like he has the potential to be a great player. He certainly has time to improve the area's of his game that are deficient.

Now its time to hope.

 

[SteveCangialosi123]

I don’t believe this at all.

Of course, because then you could step off the ledge. You seem to enjoy hanging out there.

 

[forceten]

Can we not forget Wright's death stare to Montreal's table, after not just Montreal but New Jersey and Arizona passed on him? Not impressed by that at all.

 

[DevilDog]

Here’s the disconnect, pretty much throughout the whole pre-draft everyone here and pretty much all the experts had Slaf and Wright as the top two tier and everyone else a notch below. Obviously more than one GM didn’t see it that way yesterday (though being in the same camp as Arizona doesn’t make me feel better). Even the stupid betting odds which were a tell of Slaf going first had no clue about Nemec being in the top two over Wright, people were losing their shit on Cutter being third in the betting lines.

I could have still been sold on the pick if Fitz didn’t double down admitting need was a huge factor.

But how big of a notch? It doesn’t seem like it was that large considering the non-hyperbolic reactions coming from the media.

 

[NJDevs26]

Who f***ing cares dude, you sound like the guy who was freaking out because Fitz looked down when Amanda asked him about trading the pick.

Twice tells you it was front of his mind, not just some misinterpreted offhanded comment.

And Fitz did admit he came close to trading the pick so people weren’t wrong at inferring his body language as being a tell there.

 

[Lou is God]

Fair enough, he also thought Shane Wright was #1, so even he thinks we reached.

Where did Wheeler say he thought we reached? Selecting a consensus Top 5 pick at #2 is not a reach, selecting Stillman in the first round qualifies as a reach, but not this.

 

[AfroThunder396]

Here's our Lord and Savior Bob Mackenzie's take from his scouting survey:

Slaf was ranked as low as 4 on some boards
Wright was ranked as low as 3 on some boards
Cooley had a 1st place rank, a 2nd place rank, and one rank outside the top-5
Nemec was top-3 on some boards
Cutter was top-3 on some boards
7/10 scouts had Nemec higher than Jiricek
Only half the scouts surveyed had Jiricek in the top-5

 

[Blackjack]

Where did Wheeler say he thought we reached? Selecting a consensus Top 5 pick at #2 is not a reach, selecting Stillman in the first round qualifies as a reach, but not this.

We both know that’s not true at the top of the draft.

 

[Lou is God]

We both know that’s not true at the top of the draft.

We know what's not true??

 

[Blackjack]

Here's our Lord and Savior Bob Mackenzie's take from his scouting survey:

Slaf was ranked as low as 4 on some boards
Wright was ranked as low as 3 on some boards
Cooley had a 1st place rank, a 2nd place rank, and one rank outside the top-5
Nemec was top-3 on some boards
Cutter was top-3 on some boards
7/10 scouts had Nemec higher than Jiricek
Only half the scouts surveyed had Jiricek in the top-5

I’m other words, Wright was universally ranked above Nemec.

We know what's not true??

Taking a top 5 pick at 2 isn’t reaching. Of course it is. The difference in expected value between pick 2 and 5 is huge.

Do you not understand that that’s what makes this so disheartening?

 

[AfroThunder396]

I’m other words, Wright was universally ranked above Nemec.

No, but I'm willing to give you partial credit if you show your work.

 

[hidek91]

I don’t entirely agree with the premise that you could just trade Wright for equivalent value down the road. Look at what a lot of these highly regarded young players have been bringing back in trades. The returns have been pretty underwhelming and there’s no guarantee you’re getting equal value back.

On top of it, young elite RD are just impossible to acquire. This is why I don’t think Fitz was drafting for need per se, but just drafting for a specific type of player. He knows the only way to get an elite first pairing RD on a reasonable contract is to draft them.

We may be talking about different "young players" but if Wright reaches his potential than the good comparables would be Ryan Johansen and Dubois trades, first brought Seth Jones entering his prime and the latter brought Patrik Laine entering his prime.

There haven't been many trades including young star centers because teams simply don't trade them away. Fialas and DeBrincats aren't comparable to them IMO.

 

[Wierzbowski426]

I’m other words, Wright was universally ranked above Nemec.



Taking a top 5 pick at 2 isn’t reaching. Of course it is. The difference in expected value between pick 2 and 5 is huge.

Do you not understand that that’s what makes this so disheartening?

There was obviously not much consensus about the top of this draft unless you have access to resources I'm not aware of? 3 teams passed on Wright.

 

[Lou is God]

Taking a top 5 pick at 2 isn’t reaching. Of course it is. The difference in expected value between pick 2 and 5 is huge.

Do you not understand that that’s what makes this so disheartening?

LOL, a Top 5 pick means they can go anywhere from 1 to 5, you're not making sense. And I wanted Wright too, but when three teams passed on him, I got to start asking why did they, shouldn't you too??

 

[Blackjack]

No, but I'm willing to give you partial credit if you show your work.

No one had Wright lower than 3
No one had Nemec higher than 3

Any individual scout could not have ranked both of them at 3, you do the math.

 

[oxman44]

A very Underwhelming draft night for me. The second MTL took Slaf all the air was out of my tires. (Im sick of Jeff Gorton). Alot of the other guys I really liked went to the least desireable teams for me. Jiriceck/Mateychuk to CLBS, Minty to ANA, Savoie to BUF, Kemell to NASH and Hynes, Miro to WAS. of course Slaf..... ugh just gross.
Ayway, Ill say who we picked at #2 became much less dire to me after Slaf was gone, but I do think they might regret not taking Wright in the future. But 3 teams passing should tell you something that their were big red flags with him this year.
Now I have no problem with Nemec. he was the best D in the draft in my eyes allthough I liked Jiricecks style of play much more. This is Kind of a safe pick and I think hes a bit of an Analytics darling type. BUT, Ive seen plenty enough of Nemec to make my own opinion that he is an excellent prospect. RD with top hockey IQ and maturity, play reading and passing ability and a great skater. These are Hard to fid outside of the draft. I think it will end up being a great pick for us long term. But I can say Im not impressed at all with FItzs asset management the last couple of years. We shall know for sure in about 4 more years....

 

[Lou is God]

No one had Wright lower than 3
No one had Nemec higher than 3

Any individual scout could not have ranked both of them at 3, you do the math.

This statement and the fact Wright was drafted #4 conflict with each other.

 

[Blackjack]

There was obviously not much consensus about the top of this draft unless you have access to resources I'm not aware of? 3 teams passed on Wright.

LOL, a Top 5 pick means they can go anywhere from 1 to 5, you're not making sense. And I wanted Wright too, but when three teams passed on him, I got to start asking why did they, shouldn't you too??

This is such a lousy argument. Montreal took the McKenzie consensus top player. That means our partner in crime in passing on Wright is Arizona.

You guys feel good about that?

 

[NJDevs26]

LOL, a Top 5 pick means they can go anywhere from 1 to 5, you're not making sense. And I wanted Wright too, but when three teams passed on him, I got to start asking why did they, shouldn't you too??

To a degree but when one of them takes the guy we wanted anyway while the other two that passed on him are us and Arizona then it’s more thinking our two franchises are still clueless. If it was Detroit (with Yzerman) and Colorado passing on him, different animal, but when two of the three worst franchises in the sport do it? Then it’s probably an us issue

 

[AfroThunder396]

We may be talking about different "young players" but if Wright reaches his potential than the good comparables would be Ryan Johansen and Dubois trades, first brought Seth Jones entering his prime and the latter brought Patrik Laine entering his prime.

There haven't been many trades including young star centers because teams simply don't trade them away. Fialas and DeBrincats aren't comparable to them IMO.

Do you really think Wright would have become be a star playing on our 3rd line with Pavel Zacha and Andreas Johnsson?

 

[Blackjack]

This statement and the fact Wright was drafted #4 conflict with each other.

Yes, sorry, our imbecile gm and Arizona did. Great.

Do you really think Wright would have become be a star playing on our 3rd line with Pavel Zacha and Andreas Johnsson?

Yes

 

[Lou is God]

To a degree but when one of them takes the guy we wanted anyway while the other two that passed on him are us and Arizona then it’s more thinking our two franchises are still clueless. If it was Detroit (with Yzerman) and Colorado passing on him, different animal, but when two of the three worst franchises in the sport do it? Then it’s probably an us issue

There have been rumblings about some serious red flags with Wright for months now. I still think he's going to be a NHL star, but Nemec has just as much upside as Wright to reach that level. Plus it is a need and a player many think can step in right away thanks to him playing professional hockey since he was 15.

 

[AfroThunder396]

This is such a lousy argument. Montreal took the McKenzie consensus top player. That means our partner in crime in passing on Wright is Arizona.

You guys feel good about that?

There was no consensus, 5/10 scouts had Slafkovsky #1 and 5/10 scouts had someone else #1.

Every single scout had a different board, I'm not sure why this is so hard to understand.