Devils’ Simon Nemec to miss time with injury
New Jersey Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe has announced that defenseman Simon Nemec is going to miss some time with an injury.
Per NJ head coach Sheldon Keefe, Nemec was injured yesterday in practice. Will miss some time Ridiculous rash of injuries
#NEWS: Head coach Sheldon Keefe said Simon Nemec will not play today.
According to Keefe, Nemec was injured during practice on Friday, which ensured that he missed Saturday’s matinee game against the Anaheim Ducks.
At this point in time, how long “some time” actually means is not known, but it’s possible that another update is provided in the coming days after further evaluations. Keefe also didn’t go into the specifics of Nemec’s injury, what it is, and how severe it is.
The Devils play again on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. EST against the Vancouver Canucks, so it wouldn’t be overly surprising to see Nemec miss that game as well. The Devils then have a break until Wednesday, so that might be a good window for him to return, but it’s hard to tell when so few details are known.
The injury comes at an awful time for Nemec, as he was off to an excellent start to the season with seven goals and 11 assists for 18 points in 31 games. He’s already more than doubled his previous career high in goals, and he sits just one point back of his career high in points of 19 that was set in 2023-24.
With Nemec out of the lineup, Dennis Cholowski will replace him on the bottom pair alongside Colton White. That duo has kept the goals at 0-0 and has a 56.41% 5v5 expected goal share in 41:36 of ice time this season. Cholowski has one assist in 13 games this season.
The Devils also recalled Calen Addison from the Utica Comets earlier on Saturday to provide them with a seventh defenseman on the roster while Nemec is hurt. Addison has two goals and seven assists for nine points in 21 games with the Comets.
Nemec joins a growing pile of injuries in New Jersey, the most notable being the injury to superstar Jack Hughes while out at a team dinner. Evgenii Dadonov, Arseny Gritsyuk, Zac MacEwen and Timo Meier are the teams’ other injuries up front, while Johnathan Kovacevic and Brett Pesce join Nemec as the injuries to the Devils’ blueline.