No, your eyes do not deceive you, and yes, they are brothers. The younger brother of Simon Nemec, Adam, is eligible for the NHL Draft this season, and there are some reasons that the Devils should actually be interested in selecting him. Unlike his older brother, Adam decided to jump from HK Nitra in the Slovak Extraliga to the Sudbury Wolves of the OHL. And after having a good season in the Slovakian league, Adam really boosted his goal scoring totals with Sudbury, going from three goals in 28 games with his home club to 14 goals in 31 games with the Wolves.
As you can see in his production history from Elite Prospects below, Adam first played professional hockey during the 2023-24 season, when he was only 16 years old, just a bit older than when Simon made his debut for HK Nitra in the 2019-20 season when he turned 16 in February.
Elite Prospects
Adam checks a lot of the boxes you can ask for in a prospect:
Solid European league productionImproved Canadian juniors productionStrong World Juniors performanceSolid frame (6’1” and currently listed at 176 pounds)
Additionally, there is solid underlying evidence that Adam Nemec will be even better than his draft year production suggests. You’ll see his tracking numbers and his shift videos later on, but let’s look at those draft rankings first.
Per Elite Prospects, Nemec is largely ranked as a second to fourth-round pick.
23rd by The Hockey News (Kennedy)27th by NHL Central Scouting (NA Skaters)42nd by The Hockey News (Ferrari)52nd by TSN (Button)64th by Smaht Scouting69th by Daily Faceoff85th by McKeen’s Hockey107th by Elite Prospects
What Others Say About Nemec
On Byron Bader’s Hockey Prospecting, Adam Nemec (using Slovak Extraliga data) had an NHLe of 26 in his Draft Year, giving him a 49% probability of becoming a full-time NHLer (200+ games) and 10% probability of becoming a star (59 points per 84 games). There are some first-round prospects with similar production-based projections. His national juniors coach, Peter Fruhauf, pointed to something other than scoring first for what makes him a good player:
”He’s really smart and a real hard worker on the forecheck. If you watch him on the forecheck, he wins most of them and he battles back if he doesn’t. You can almost bet he’s going to be there, backchecking hard if he loses the puck. And, of course, he can find good spots for scoring positions. I think he almost has a sixth sense for that.”
“Simon called me every two days when I was at World Juniors, telling me to enjoy the tournament and play the game that I have been playing the whole season. When I’m at my best, I’m really good on the forecheck and at the net front. I like watching Dallas Stars forward Jason Robertson because he’s a natural goal-scorer.”
Andrew Epps said for Dobber Prospects:
He’s a left-shot forward who can play center or wing, listed at 6-1 and a lean 176, and the game is about details: he finds quiet ice in scoring areas, gets to the net front to finish, and forechecks hard enough that coaches trust him to win pucks back. He’s a shooter more than a playmaker, and the skating, once a flaw, has improved to the point it no longer holds him back.
Fortunately, Prospect Shifts has already uploaded a video of Adam going up against Brantford in late March.
I thought Nemec had a sure assist around 2:10 into the video on the power play, working the puck from the goal line to the other side of the net, but the shot went off the post. On the second power play, though, his contributions would be felt on the scoreboard as he kept possession on the wing nicely before sliding over to the bumper to further facilitate puck movement, getting in good position for a screen as he just missed tipping a shot that still rebounded to a teammate for a goal.
In the second period, after gaining the zone on another power play, Nemec redirected a puck from the bumper again that was padded away at the net. Unfortunately, this game grew to be subpar for judging Nemec’s five-on-five ability, as it seemed like play turned into entirely alternating power plays for over half of the game. Overall, it seemed like Nemec was proficient in the bumper spot, but the power play did not run through him at all once in the zone and his impact was thus limited as his team only scored one goal on a five-minute major with a full five-on-three.
With a perfect opportunity to tie the game in the third period, 20:24 into the video, Nemec had a wide-open lane with the goaltender down, but he decided to take a slap shot. He did lift it off the ground, but not quite enough as the goalie sprawled to kick the puck out of the air. It was a nice save, but a wrist shot at the top shelf would have done the trick. Nemec’s game largely ended taking a huge hit on an offensive zone entry with five minutes remaining, after which he only had one short shift.
In total, Nemec had an okay, but not great game. I saw some good things, such as his position in the passing lanes on breakouts and his ability to quickly win pucks by the boards, but this was definitely not his best performance. Some of his passes missed the mark, but part of that is working with teammates who left attacking positions too early. And he was a bit unlucky with his spot on the power play considering his team’s perimeter focus, but he could have had a goal at five-on-five with better decision making.
For more, check his highlights from HSD Prospects. Here, you can really see how much of a living Nemec makes going up and down the middle of the ice, going to the net, and working the puck down low.
I might not be so inclined to avidly promote the Devils selecting Adam Nemec with their top two picks, currently with the #12 and #44 overall picks, but I could get behind him being selected with that second round pick, depending on the other players available. As it is, Nemec has solid but unspectacular production and very good offensive tracking per Mitch Brown’s CHL tracking data, and I think he is probably about two or three years away from being able to compete in the NHL.
Mitchell Brown’s CHL Tracking Project
From the games that Brown tracked, Nemec showed great playmaking ability with few shots taken (contrary to the way he is described by internet scouts), though his shot selection (in terms of area) is very good. His transition game is not elite, but he does well at getting the puck out of the defensive zone, and his passing again shows well here. On the rush, he is pass-first, though the quality of chances are tracked as better when he takes the shot. On the cycle, Nemec struggles to find the same dangerous shots but generates chances for teammates from the low cycle.
Personally, I tend to be a fan of low-cycle players, and I think Nemec could be a good complement to the Devils’ high-cycle players such as Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt. Additionally, Nemec’s propensity for creating one-timers for teammates would fit the skillsets of certain players with long-term contracts such as Hughes and Timo Meier, who has hardly had anyone setting him up for one-timers in New Jersey. I would like to see how Nemec fares at center, as I have read that he can play center or wing (but played wing in the OHL), but I presume he will largely be a left wing moving forward. I’m not sure if that’s a good decision, as it seems he is a good facilitator and forward lines generally work best when the center is the offensive engine.
If the Devils somehow acquired an additional second-round pick through a trade, Nemec would absolutely be around the top of my second-round board. If Sudbury allows him to develop at center rather than at wing, he could be a great two-way player. To me, he already looks more like a center than a wing. In the video, he was often the forward with the most mind to backcheck, and he was usually leading the forecheck and also facilitating the transition game up to center ice. I’m not sure if he hasn’t played center since he was in Slovak juniors (he also played right wing at World Juniors), but his game is not one I would want to put on the wing at his stage of development. Later? Sure. But I think Sudbury would be better off if he took even more of a role. I did notice that a lot of his highlights with HK Nitra came when he was skating down the middle, though I don’t have full shifts to contextualize them.
Another bonus if the Devils select Adam: if they do, we don’t have to hear an entire online fanbase mocking ridiculous Simon Nemec-to-wherever trades for years and years.
What would you think if the Devils assembled another combo of brothers? How do you think Nemec would fit with the Devils’ core forwards in a couple years? What do you make of the style of his game? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.