Just Keep Skating: Slovakia, Utica, Jersey Now Calgary

Calgary gave up two conditional first-round picks, a second, and a prospect defenceman to get Šimon Nemec. Two weeks later they gave him five years and $36.25 million. He is 22.

The Flames did not buy a finished player. They bought a bet. Here is what the bet is built on.

The nickname landed before he did

“Nemo” is not a Calgary invention. NHL.com was already calling him that in December 2023, during his time with the AHL’s Utica Comets, before he was a full-time Devil. New Jersey kept it running: the club tagged an earlier Nemec overtime winner “NEMO-T HERO” in April 2025, then reached for the same pun for its own game story when he had the best night of his career that November: “NemO(T).” When the trade to Calgary became official, the Flames’ own account posted “Found Nemo.” The joke is older than the trade. Calgary just inherited it.

New Jersey Devils on X: the "NEMO-T HERO" overtime winner, April 2025 (view post on X)

He made history in overtime, and almost nobody in Calgary noticed

November 12, 2025, in Chicago. Nemec scored his first career hat trick, then scored the overtime winner. He is the youngest defenceman in NHL history to do both in the same game, and only the ninth player at any position to do it, regular season or playoffs. He was 21. New Jersey won 4-3.

The winner came off a pass from Jacob Markstrom, the goalie Calgary traded to New Jersey in 2024, before Nemec went one-on-one with Spencer Knight and beat him. The former Flames goalie set up the record goal for the defenceman Calgary just paid $7.25 million a year.

He was cooking dinner when he found out

Nemec was at home in Slovakia on June 23 when the call came.

“I was just cooking my dinner when I got the news. I was a little shocked, but in a positive way.”

He also said Calgary “can be a really good spot for me, so I’m really happy.” For a player moved in a deal this size, that is a notably calm way to take it.

Calgary paid a real price

New Jersey sent Nemec and winger Maxim Tsyplakov to Calgary. Going the other way: a conditional 2027 first-round pick (Vegas), a conditional 2028 first (Colorado), a 2026 second (NY Rangers), and prospect defenceman Etienne Morin.

That 2027 Vegas first is the same pick Calgary landed in January for Rasmus Andersson, in the deal that also brought back Zach Whitecloud and prospect Abram Wiebe. Its top-10 protection carried over intact. Five months later, the Flames spent it on the 22-year-old brought in to replace him. Andersson left as Calgary’s most-used defenceman. He came back as Nemec.

Then they paid him

Five years, $36.25 million, an average of $7.25 million against the cap, through 2030-31. Signed July 6, two weeks after the trade. Calgary did not wait to see him practise.

He was the highest-drafted Slovak defenceman ever

New Jersey took him second overall in 2022, the highest any Slovak-born defenceman has ever gone. Then last season he broke out: 68 games, 11 goals, 26 points.

The room was already waiting for him

Martin Pospisil and Sam Honzek were the first calls he made.

“We are really good friends,” Nemec said of Pospisil. “Also Sam Honzek. They were the first guys I texted that I am joining Calgary.”

The read

The case against is real. He is 22, and he was moved by the team that drafted him second overall. The concern coming out of the 2022 draft, per Bleacher Report’s scouting grade, was zone coverage: strong gaps and one-on-one defending, but a tendency to get “confused during a rotation” and end up caught in no man’s land. Calgary is paying top-four money for a player who has not yet been a top-four defenceman for a full healthy season.

The case for is the November night in Chicago. Nobody accidentally becomes the youngest defenceman in league history to do anything.

Calgary is not buying what Nemec has been. They are buying what he did once, and betting he can do it on purpose.

Independent commentary. Not affiliated with the Calgary Flames. Player facts verified against public hockey media as of July 2026; see the research trail before publication.