{"id":757138,"date":"2026-06-24T02:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T02:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/757138\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T02:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T02:14:09","slug":"flames-cash-in-on-unique-opportunity-by-trading-for-simon-nemec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/757138\/","title":{"rendered":"Flames cash in on unique opportunity by trading for Simon Nemec"},"content":{"rendered":"

CALGARY \u2014 Playing in a celebrity soccer game last week with fellow Slovaks Martin Pospisil and Sam Honzek, little did Simon Nemec<\/a> know he\u2019d soon be one of their Calgary Flames<\/a> teammates.<\/p>\n

But following four frustrating seasons in New Jersey where the 22-year-old defenceman was brought along much slower than he wanted, Nemec will finally get the opportunity to join them in Calgary to demonstrate why he was the second-overall pick in the 2022 draft.<\/p>\n

After several years of stockpiling draft picks, Craig Conroy finally found an age-appropriate cornerstone to spend some of them on.<\/p>\n

This was not the type of move signalling the Flames are ready to cut corners (or turn the corner) on their rebuild.<\/p>\n

It was a perfect example of cashing in on a unique opportunity made possible by Nemec\u2019s frustration and Calgary\u2019s extensive draft capital.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you get a 22-year-old right-shot defenceman that was second overall in the draft and he’s on the upswing, that’s something we thought we had to target,\u201d Conroy told Sportsnet, after sending the Devils\u00a0a conditional 2027 first-round pick (from Vegas), a conditional 2028 first-round pick (from Colorado), a 2026 second-round pick (from the Rangers) and minor-league defenceman Etienne Morin for Nemec and right winger Maxim Tsyplakov. (Both conditional first-round picks are top-10 protected.)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe paid a big price, there’s no doubt, but that’s why we got those (picks). The key for me was keeping our own picks \u2014 that was the priority. You look at Vegas and Colorado \u2014 they\u2019re very good teams \u2014 so those are going to be later picks in the draft. And we felt like to get a player of this calibre, it was worth putting all these things in to get him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Before anyone gets too concerned the acquisition of another right-shot defenceman could infringe on the growth or ice time of the team\u2019s most coveted prospect \u2014 Zayne Parekh \u2014 chew on this nugget from the GM:<\/p>\n

\u201cI can definitely see Parekh on the left side,\u201d said Conroy, who watched the 20-year-old start to flourish late in the year, partially on his off-side.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he played really well there with (Zach) Whitecloud (another righty). He actually said he enjoyed it more at the end of the year, so that’s why I wasn’t afraid to do something with another right shot guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, pencil in Kevin Bahl and Nemec on the top pair, and Parekh and Whitecloud on the second unit, with young guys like Yan Kuznetsov (lefty), Abram Wiebe (lefty) and Hunter Brzustewicz (righty) pushing alongside veteran lefties Olli Maatta and Joel Hanley and righty Brayden Pachal. Lots of healthy competition there, and plenty of reasons to believe the Flames will opt for a forward when they pick sixth overall Friday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe moves the puck well, he can play both special teams, he can play against top players, sees the ice well, jumps in on the offence,\u201d said Conroy of Nemec, whose second full year in the NHL this season saw him score 11 goals and 26 points in 68 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was kind of behind a few guys there, where I think he’s going to get to really take a more prominent role here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nemec said he never asked for a trade, \u201cbut both sides kind of knew something had to happen,\u201d he said of the frustration surrounding the fact the 6-foot-1, 190-pound defender spent 112 games in the minors over his first three seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was frustrating a little bit because I felt I can get more ice time, and when I did I think I proved I could be a good player in this league,\u201d said Nemec.<\/p>\n

The Flames\u2019 New Jersey-based scout, Kerry Huffman, felt the same way, as did the rest of the eastern-based scouts who feel like Nemec is on the cusp of blossoming into the type of high-impact player he was pegged at when he was drafted.<\/p>\n

A restricted free agent in need of a contract he wasn\u2019t keen to sign in New Jersey, Nemec said he\u2019s open to signing long-term with the Flames.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor sure,\u201d he said from his home in Slovakia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey gave up a lot for me, and I would like to stay as long as I can. It has been a pretty exciting night.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Nemec helped Slovakia win bronze at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the country’s first men’s hockey Olympic medal. He also helped Slovakia finish fourth at the\u00a02026 Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I look at the group, it\u2019s a good fit for me,\u201d said Nemec, who played almost 20 minutes a night this season, in a second-pairing role behind Dougie Hamilton.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also know some guys from Calgary. (Conroy) told me to be in good shape for the big minutes, and that\u2019s obviously what you want. I will be ready for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Conroy speaks of looking for age-appropriate players (21 to 23 years old) the team can grow with, he always points out they\u2019re rarely available, making this a unique situation he pounced on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen his name became available, and after talking to our pro scouts and what we’re kind of trying to identify, it just felt like the right thing,\u201d he said, pointing out he\u2019s been focused on adding centres and defencemen.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you can get a good young player that’s going to be with your team, we hope for the next 15 years, that’s what you\u2019ve got to give up.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a player who was captain and named tourney MVP at the\u00a02021 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, and set the tourney record for points by an 18-year-old defenceman at the 2022 world championships, his upside is very, very high.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think coming over, not speaking the language, it just took a little time,\u201d said Conroy of the fact New Jersey placed Nemec in the minors for his first full year as a pro, as well as the bulk of his third season.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut his game has really turned around, and at 22 he’s a guy that we felt we can grow with now. The new building is two years away and he’s really going to be hitting his stride hopefully the next couple years, and we think he’s going to be a big part of this moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tsyplakov won\u2019t be, as he\u2019s a 27-year-old depth forward with 12 goals over the last two seasons who has one year left on a deal worth $2.25 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALGARY \u2014 Playing in a celebrity soccer game last week with fellow Slovaks Martin Pospisil and Sam Honzek,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-757138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}