This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Simon Nemec
New Jersey Devils Defense
27 games at 21 and a 39 per cent chance share — the 1st percentile in the league.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | NJD | 60 | 3 | 16 | 19 | -7 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 73 | 4.1 | 19:52 |
| 2024-25 | NJD | 27 | 2 | 2 | 4 | -10 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 26 | 7.7 | 14:59 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 87 | 5 | 18 | 23 | -17 | 47 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 99 | 5.1 | 18:21 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
2 goals and 2 assists in 27 games for 4 points, minus-10, on 14:59 a night.
39 per cent at five-on-five, the 1st percentile among all skaters in the league, over 340 minutes. His on-ice goals were 10-18 against an expected 10.3-16.1. Not one of his 26 shots came from inside 20 feet.
The Finesse Game
The passing was the reason he was a 2nd overall pick and it has not shown at this level. 4 points in 27 games, 26 shots, and no meaningful offensive contribution across two partial NHL seasons.
He does not stall a breakout under moderate pressure. Under a real forecheck the decisions come apart, which is what a 1st-percentile chance share looks like.
The Physical Game
6-1 and 190, and he is not strong enough yet. He loses board battles to NHL forwards and cannot defend a net front, and the gap control is a year or two behind.
14 penalty minutes over 27 games is a high rate for the ice time and it is the tell of a defenceman being beaten.
The Intangibles
The 2nd overall pick in 2022, a strong American League record, and two NHL seasons that have gone badly enough to raise real questions.
At 21 there is time and a 1st-percentile share over 340 minutes is the worst number in this chapter. The club has three defencemen ahead of him on the right side and no obvious way to give him the minutes he needs.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 340 minutes
- Expected goals
- 39%
- 1st pct
- Shot attempts
- 42.9%
- 5th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 10 for, 18 against. Expected: 10.3 and 16.1.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 11 points of one another. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason.
Both bars are percentiles among the 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 64 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2024-25 · 340 minutes at five-on-five
- Seamus Casey18%
- Luke Hughes12%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2024-25
- The club
- NJD took 50.7% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 39.0% — 11.7 below the club he did it on.
- The role
- 340 minutes at five-on-five — 8th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brenden Dillon | 46.8% | 33.8% | 50.1% |
| Erik Haula | 40.5% | 38.3% | 47.7% |
| Paul Cotter | 38.9% | 39.1% | 49.9% |
46.8% together, 33.8% for him apart and 50.1% for Dillon apart. He was the one being carried: the share went with Dillon and did not follow him.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
40 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 2 of them goals. His median goal came from 54 feet. 0% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 73% from beyond forty.