They typically don’t use the word, but the Calgary Flames rebuild (aggressive sell-off?) appears to be on track thanks in part to a whirlwind series of trades during the season.
The Flames committed to the easy part. They sold talent. If it wasn’t nailed down and they could get something for it, they sold it. The first offseason after the sell-off, though, can be intriguing. Do you keep selling? Buy conservatively? The Flames may have chosen the latter. Certainly, that’s how Simon Nemec wound up moving across the continent from the Garden State to Alberta.
It may not solve their massive problems down the middle, but acquiring top talent at reduced costs is never easy. In Nemec, the Flames paid pennies on the dollar for a premium talent who hasn’t lived up to the billing. Sure, he’s a career minus-23 at five-on-five, hasn’t been trusted with prime power-play time and was underwater on some key metrics last season. Still, it’s hard to deny that Simon Nemec sounds like a player who wants to prove the New Jersey Devils wrong, providing a potential boon for the Flames.
Simon Nemec’s Motivation is a Starting Point
The Slovakian right-shot defenseman is one of the highest-rated Slovaks in the history of the NHL Draft process. Drafted just after Juraj Slafkovsky, Nemec must have expected to become a major part of what the New Jersey Devils were building around the likes of Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes.
“I just want to prove to everyone that New Jersey wasn’t right,” Nemec told The Hockey News this month.
Motivation is critical, and there are plenty of examples of second chances working out well for former high draft picks like Simon Nemec. The talent is there, but sometimes it takes some players longer than others to bring it all to fruition. In Nemec’s case, Calgary gets a hungry, talented former top pick mostly for a pack of magic beans.
In light of the Calgary Flames rebuild, the front office managed this trade smartly. Calgary included two first-round selections belonging to two teams very likely to be in the Stanley Cup conversation. While those two picks do carry some complicated protections, the Flames are not likely to miss either of them. The most likely outcome for the Flames is that they traded two late first-round picks, a second-round pick and a defense prospect for a potential top-four defenseman. And, certainly, it’s plausible Nemec is even better than that.
It’s a tidy bit of business in that respect: a motivated player seeking a new home finds a talent-bereft organization that has more draft picks than they can reasonably use. Critically, the Flames don’t want to be bad forever. This isn’t Chicago. The Flames front office, typically, has been unwilling to use the word ‘rebuild’ in any capacity. Rather than betting on two long-shot picks, they bundled up to bet on what is probably closer to a medium shot.
The Rebuild Needs More Moves Like This
Simon Nemec, presumably, hopes the deployment situation in Calgary differs from New Jersey.
“I wanted to be No. 1 defenseman, to play power play and everything. But two other guys wanted to do the same (Hughes and Hamilton), so it’s tough to manage that.”
Zayne Parekh had a tough first year for the Flames. Still, his long-term profile is as a top-four defenseman who should be running the top power-play unit. Maybe the Flames ultimately determine that Parekh and Nemec can play on the same unit. Still, there’s a chance one of them winds up being the second quarterback.
That may be a problem down the road. For now, the Flames can let Nemec and Parekh have a free run. Plausibly, each defenseman might be the lead guy on their own pairing. The question for the Calgary Flames rebuild is whether moves like the Simon Nemec deal can be replicated. In doing so, the Flames dealt both first-round picks acquired in deals that sent premium assets out of town. Every move is a bet, but this one comes with slightly better odds than similar ones thanks to Nemec’s pedigree.
Now, to make the Calgary Flames rebuild burn bright, they’ll need to consider what other pieces they can deal. A rebuild doesn’t need to be done exclusively through the draft. In Nemec’s own draft class, another disgruntled top-five pick is looking for a new home via trade: Shane Wright.
That’s the type of move that would echo this one, potentially helping Calgary escape this not-a-rebuild faster than expected.
New Flames Defenseman Simon Nemec Sounds Motivated