The New Jersey Devils found themselves in a familiar position on Thursday, having a high draft pick and with the 2nd overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft they Selected Defenseman Simon Nemec.
Amongst all the top tier talent available in this years entry draft, The New Jersey Devils found themselves in a bit of a good predicament. At 2nd overall, they had a choice to make, draft Shane Wright or Simon Nemec. We all now know they took Nemec and they did that for some very good reasons.
Drafting Shane Wright would’ve made zero sense. Wright is a center with the Kingston Frontenac’s and drafting a center when you already have Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier on the roster would’ve caused a significant backlog in top centers in the organization so it only made sense to draft Nemec who is a defenseman.
Drafting a defenseman for the second year in a row is a good move for the Devils as last year they drafted Luke Hughes with the 4th overall pick in 2021. Both Hughes and Nemec will be significant parts of the Devils blueline in the years to come.
In a similar model, look at the Buffalo Sabres, They drafted Rasmus Dahlin and then took Owen Power, not in back to back drafts but it was a move in order to build up the cabinets with top defensive prospects for years to come and when it comes to Devils, they are going to need all the help they can get no matter what position they draft.
As far as Simon Nemec is concerned, he’s a defensive defenseman and you can never have too many of those weather they are NHL ready now or will be in a few years. He could be somewhat of a playmaking defenseman as he can really rack up assists seen as with his team in Slovakia is put up 1 goal with 25 assists in 39 games last season. All around would be someone that would be highly effective in no matter what situations he plays in.