Plenty of uncertainty surrounding Simon Nemec trade for Flames, Devils
The Calgary Flames and New Jersey Devils kicked off Tuesday’s NHL trade frenzy with a major deal that saw defenseman Simon Nemec head to Alberta for a pair of future first-round picks and the No. 35 overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft.
It’s the first major trade for new Devils general manager Sunny Mehta, who adds valuable trade chips that he can use to add more developed talent to the roster as he looks to get New Jersey back into contention mode.
For the Flames, it adds an intriguing right-handed defenseman with considerable draft pedigree, adding to a position of strength with Zayne Parekh and Hunter Brzustewicz already in the pipeline and ready to push for considerable NHL ice time.
On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed the gamble that both sides of this trade are taking moving forward.
Tyler Yaremchuk: The Calgary Flames made a splash, acquiring disgruntled defenseman Simon Nemec, along with board Maxim Tsyplakov from the New Jersey Devils. In exchange, it’s a prospect. It is a first-round pick. It is another first-round pick and a second-round pick. Nemec is probably going to be good. But I use the word probably in there. He’s not quite established. I get why a team like Calgary is willing to kind of make this splash because Nemec, the former second overall pick, again, if it hits, this is going to be a beauty for the Calgary Flames. If it doesn’t, I mean, I live in a market that sat through the Griffin Reinhart trade, and I don’t want to make that direct comparable because I think Simon Nemec is better, but the point is, it’s an unknown. So I’m not even going to declare a winner or a loser on this deal because they traded a bunch of pieces that are relatively unknown. But Hutts, I’m still amazed that the Devils were able to flip Simon Nemec and get kind of this haul of assets.
Carter Hutton: Yeah, it’s a good haul too for a guy that didn’t want to be there. So like I feel like your leverage was gone, right? In the sense of, you know, what he was able to do with this, and Sunny Mehta being able to get this haul back is good because… if you know a guy is out, it obviously loses the same power that he has. And for him, it’s another interesting take. I think this is just the younger player we’re dealing with in an insulated world where you get drafted second overall, you want to be in the NHL all the time. And it didn’t go that way. And now going into drafting players and understanding the development, the value of time in the American Hockey League, you better be communicating with your players. You better have like a very good alignment on the growth and where he’s going to be, because if it goes south, this is a situation you end up in. And again, Simon Nemec could turn into a star. He may not, but the factor is the players now have kind of taken the flag back and they own a lot of power, and they’re using it.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…