The Calgary Flames and RFA offensive defenceman Simon Nemec put pen to paper today in a deal that keeps the smooth skating Slovakian in town for another five seasons.
Paying out a total sum of $36,300,000, Nemec will carry an annual average value of $7,250,000 against the salary cap. The deal concludes one season after the 22-year-old right-side defender becomes eligible for unrestricted free agency at the age of 26 due to seasons accrued.
We’re seeing risk mitigation from both sides. Nemec doesn’t want to buy-in at a $7.25M value for longer than he has to; clearly he believes he’ll be worth more than that in five years. Hitting UFA status at 27 also puts him in a perfect position to land a major pay day.
For the Flames, they have Nemec’s body of work to bet on. Despite being stuck behind Luke Hughes and Dougie Hamilton on Jersey head coach Sheldon Keefe’s offensive deployment pecking order, Nemec found the back of the net 11 times last season and also racked up 15 assists.
Out of those 26 points, only two of those were recorded on the power play—over 83:49 of PP ice time, or 1:14 per game.
A bit of a red flag, it might be that Nemec was merely the far-side option to the playoff QB on a power play that runs two defencemen. Something implies that Dougie and Hughes weren’t eager to feed Nemec the puck when he was breathing down their neck for deployment.
Flames fans are also quite aware of Dougie Hamilton’s (New Jersey’s leader among defencemen in PP TOI) approach to the power play: the puck is going off Dougie’s stick and the rest of the gang can figure out what to do next.
There is also a matter of consistency, which also might have something to do with how often and what situations Nemec got the puck, but we saw a tale of two seasons in Simon’s case.
A Tale of Two Seasons – Simon Nemec
First 31 games: 7 goals, 11 assists, 18 points, +4
Last 37 games: 4 goals, 4 assists, 8 points, -15
The divider between these data sets is a lower body injury that saw Nemec miss 12 games in late December. Playing only 61 games between the NHL and AHL the season prior, Nemec has a bit of an injury history in his three seasons of North American pro.
This is all to say that the results aren’t there to justify Nemec becoming Calgary’s highest-paid defenceman. New Jersey wasn’t a fair situation, but the results still aren’t there.
Hence general manager Craig Conroy and the Flames not taking that AAV to above nine to buy an extra one or two seasons.
They say a good deal is when neither side is happy. Despite what many Jersey-based outlets were reporting as the ask, Nemec doesn’t see his salary start with a nine. The Flames don’t get their prized new RFA on a max term deal.
What Next?
With Nemec signed, Conroy has two remaining RFAs to sign. Winger Brennan Othmann and defenceman Nikita Okhotiuk. The former will likely be signed in the coming weeks and the latter has been in Russia for a couple of seasons since being acquired from San Jose for a fifth round pick.
Despite moving out Blake Coleman and Olli Määttä and a number of players departing as UFAs from the organization, Conroy once again has bit of a log jam. Let’s take a look at the projected roster:
2026-27 Projected Opening Night Calgary Flames Roster
Gridin-Frost-Coronato
Zary-Backlund-Farabee
Huberdeau-Strome-Sharangovich
Tsyplakov-Pospisil-Klapka
Honzek
Parekh-Whitecloud
Bahl-Nemec
Kuznetsov-Middleton
Hanley-Brzustewicz
Wolf
Cooley
En lieu of any further Flames trades, players like Sam Honzek, Rory Kerins, and Sam Morton will essentially have to wait for one or two injuries if they want to pry out a regular spot in the lineup. Hunter Brzustewicz may also find himself in that situation.
Statistics courtesy of Elite Prospects, Capwages, and the National Hockey League.
Keep Reading:
Flames Ship Coleman, Acquire Middleton: Full Analysis
Neufeld’s Notes: Flames Stir Controversy at 2026 Entry Draft
Flames Acquire Simon Nemec: Breaking Down the Risk
Flames Affiliate to Bruins First Pairing: The Rise of Jonathan Aspirot
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