Finding Nemo: Devils Simon Nemec Struggles Raising Concern?

NEWARK — The New Jersey Devils suffered their first loss of the 2024-25 season Thursday night by the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was a disappointing loss for head coach Sheldon Keefe who certainly would have preferred two points, especially against the club who fired him just five months ago. And although many Devils didn’t particularly play well against the Maple Leafs, there is rising concern with Simon Nemec’s performance through the first three games of the regular season.

READ — Devils Postgame: Keefe Disappointed, Defense Struggles in 4-2 Loss to Maple Leafs

The Devils’ sophomore defenseman suffered an upper-body injury over the summer while skating for Team Slovakia in an Olympic qualifying match against Team Kazakhstan. The injury forced Nemec to miss the remainder of the tournament. However, the Devils received positive news when they learned he hadn’t broken or fractured anything. Therefore, he didn’t miss any time in training camp and has been working with the team from day one.

Yet, something appears off with Nemec. That’s not to say it’s a result of something injury-related. However, the 20-year-old defenseman certainly doesn’t look like the poised and confident defender he did in his rookie season.

In short, Nemec’s decision-making hasn’t been as quick, he hasn’t been as smart with the puck on his stick, and his ability to defend in his own end has been less than ideal.

On Thursday night, Nemec was a minus-two against the Maple Leafs and, again, looked out of sorts. On Toronto’s second goal, Nemec allowed Steven Lorentz to push the puck past him, reaching for Lorentz with his stick while the Maple Leafs forward forced his way by the Devils defenseman. Lorentz then cycled the puck to the point, made his way to the slot where Nemec followed, and won the puck battle in the slot to create traffic in front of Jacob Markstrom which resulted in a Bobby McMann goal.

In the second period, Max Domi gained the Devils’ zone with Nemec applying very little pressure to the Maple Leafs forward, just flailing his stick in Domi’s direction. As a result, Domi fed a streaking John Tavares in the slot — who Nemec weakly stick checked on the hands — and the Maple Leafs forward regained Toronto’s two-goal lead.

These are just but a few examples of Nemec’s lack of compete and inability to win puck battles so far this season. In fact, it’s the exact thing Sheldon Keefe explained wasn’t acceptable following Thursday’s loss.

“Some of the defending, like just laying on our sticks, not going through bodies [wasn’t good].” Keefe said. “We had to defend more tonight, probably, than we had to out in Prague. But, yeah, [the effort] was not it.”

According to Natural Stat Trick, Nemec is second-worst on the Devils among players who have dressed in all three games in CF% (32%), xGF% (32.33%), and is on the negative side of an 11-21 scoring chance differential. In fact, of the 21 scoring chances Nemec has been on the ice for, 12 have been in high-danger areas.

What is perhaps most concerning about this trend is that Nemec has only started one shift all season in the defensive end of the ice. Most of his shifts begin on the fly or in the offensive or neutral zone. In other words, the opposition is making quick work of Nemec — and as an extension, Seamus Casey — during 5-on-5 play.

Opponents taking advantage of Casey as a rookie is to be expected, but make no mistake, the Devils expect better of Nemec this season.

It’s been just three games in the regular season, and maybe it’s too early to ring the alarms, but there is certainly concern rising with Nemec’s on-ice performance. If he doesn’t turn things around quickly, Nemec could find himself the odd-man out when one or both of Brett Pesce and Luke Hughes returns.

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