The Hockey PDOcast - Simon Nemec and Driving Offensive Results from the Defense Position

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Darryl Belfry to break down Simon Nemec's rookie season in New Jersey, the things he's doing to drive such positive offensive results for the Devils, and the future of the defense position. If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Progressing to the mean since 2015, it's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey PEDEOCast. My name is Dmitri Pilipovich, and joining me is my good buddy, Daryl, what's going on, man? I'm excited to be back. Another defenseman. Let's go. Look at us. A couple here in the past couple weeks.

Good. They deserve some love, too. Last week, funny enough, we did one of the oldest stars in the league with our Sydney Crosby Deep Dive, and that was a really fun one, a lot of rich Texas. there. This week, though, we're going to the complete opposite extreme, and we're going to do one of the youngest emerging stars in the NHL, Shimon Nemitz. And quite frankly, first of, I think we need the palate cleanser, considering how frustrating this devil season has been generally. And I feel like every conversation I've been having about them recently on the show has been frustrating and

it's kind of reflected that to date. So I think this will be nice because I think it'll be much more uplifting and encouraging, looking forward to the future and describing this young player's performance this season. But also I think it makes for a great topic for us regardless of that because I just love chatting about these young defensemen with you. I think the intricacies of what they're doing individually within the team structure. And all of that makes for really important analysis, right? I think it really gets you thinking about where we're at right now with the sport, like how much it's changing, how much room there still is for evolution, I think, and how the job requirements of that position sort of exemplify that. And I think Nemitz,

is all of those things. Like he just turned 20 a couple weeks ago. He's playing a big role on this devil's team that already plays a bit more of a modern style than most teams. And you get to see all of those qualities and traits that we constantly keep harping on when you watch this player's tape. So I think that's why he's such a fun subject for us here today. Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

And I think that he is what I would consider to be like that next wave or this, this, this, he represents this next wave of the types of defensemen that we are going to continue to see more and more of. And I think his skill set lends itself to some great discussion about how to develop D in terms of moving in this direction and what's really expected of defensemen, I think, now more than what it was before. So that's why I was, when you brought his name up, I got really excited because those types of discussions, I think, are really interesting to have as well. Because the demands of the position of defense is different now and the types of skill sets that you have to have. And this kid, Nimitz, he has a lot of those skills.

And so it'll be a really cool discussion. Well, not only did he turn 20 recently. So he played a bunch of the seasons still as a teenager, but last year was his first season in North America. and while he did get the benefit of playing remarkably three years of pro hockey in Slovakia leading up to his draft class in 2022, there's still, I think we'd all agree, a massive talent gap. And it's very evident between that pro league and jumping into the NHL, particularly since, unlike a Brock Faber last year, even his teammate Luke Hughes, he didn't get any reps last year playing meaningful games with the devils down the stretch, right?

He spent his full season in the HAL. And so for those guys, I think they kind of got to see. what it was like particularly in the postseason. And I imagine that helps sort of inform a lot of your training then in the following off season because you sort of know what to expect. You've got a baseline for it. For him, he sort of had to start this season again in Utica and then just jump in in the middle

of the season after the Dougie Hamilton injury. And so I kind of wanted to note that because I think it's very important context for evaluating his play and the degree of difficulty in what he's done. And since making his debut, Darrell, he leads this devil's team with 17, five on five minutes per game. So they're leaning on him quite heavily. Now he's playing on kind of their de facto shutdown pair with Jonas Seganthaler since he returned. And in those minutes, the devil's control 52% of the shots, 54% of the chances,

56.7% of the expected goals. And he's really helping drive positive results and make an impact for this team. And so let's get into it. Now that I've provided kind of that base layer of context, what really sticks out to you when you watch him? What do you think is the first sort of trait that he exhibits that helps inform us, I guess, of how he's driving those results? Well, to me, you have to look at his ability to defend.

That's really where you have to go. You cannot play in the National Hockey League and drive those results that you're talking about without being able to defend effectively. And when you talked about his, you know, acclimatizing himself in North America having to come in and play essentially like a season and a half or a season and a quarter in Utica, those minutes in the American Hocke. hockey league for a young defensemen are invaluable because you have to learn how to defend in small space. You have to defend. You have to be able to stop the cycle. You got to be able to defend the rush.

And what I think is is really fascinating about Namich is he's not a kid that, you know, he's not going to overpower you physically. That's just not his game. But he does have an ability to skate really well. he can defend skating forwards he will get you before you're a real threat which i really love that about him so he doesn't really wait for you to get the puck get your speed up and then try to play you he he gets you as you're getting the puck there's a lot of instances when you know before you even like as you touch it before you even figure out what you're doing he's already come down on you he has an excellent stick but he beats you

with angles, timing, and stick position. And as he gets, you know, as he, you know, gets further into his 20s and plays, you know, 300 games in the league, he'll learn how to impose himself much more physically in times when he needs it. But for now, he can drive results without being physically overwhelming. He can do it through these ideas of skating, angles, and. timing and I don't think that that can be discounted for a player coming in and being able to have the impact that he's having.

Yeah, you see that. In my notes, I really like the routes he takes off of the puck, right? Like you can see that in a lot of these clips where he's almost attacking you in, in the devil's offensive zone, like at the dots sometimes. And you can even see it like a guy like Kutraal, for example, he's sort of expecting to get a puck from his defenseman and kind of, as we talked about in his. episode, kickstart the breakout, right? He's going to turn around and fling the buck up or carry it a few steps and then make a play into the middle of the ice. And Nemitz doesn't

really allow you to do that very often. He's kind of attacking downhill in that way that we like to describe. And so he's cutting you off. And sometimes he'll poke it away and it'll sort of keep the offensive zone possession going. But worst case, it just forces you to make a play sooner than you probably want to, right? And Kutrov can still make it work because he's such a special breed. But for a lot of NHL players as talented as they are. If you rush them into making decisions, it's going to be kind of a low percentage play. They'll either just dump it out of the zone or potentially even ice the puck

because they really panicked and shot it too hard. And so you're creating all of these subtly positive plays that are advancing territorial play for the devils. And so I really like those aggressive routes he takes in doing so, that kind of concept of surfing and all of that, right? I think you can really see that in his game and it's cool to see. Well, I think one of the interesting parts about that whole concept is that as he's playing and he's processing the game, one of the things that really stands out as he kind of gets you before it gets started is when you mentioned like rushing an NHL player and the effect that that has,

the issue with time and space with an NHL player is that they will make a much more dangerous play off that. puck. What he does is you might, he might not rush you into a mistake or rush you into like a problem where you turn the puck over, but he's going to rush you into making a more conservative play, which then allows the devils or the team that you're playing on to be able to adjust to defend that next play. So you, you delay, he's delaying the danger and putting off the danger. And oftentimes, like he's forcing, whether it be 50, 50 loose pucks, whether it be just changes of possession that occur now in the neutral zone or he or he's able to kill the play in the offensive zone.

So it's not so much that he's able to create transition that leads immediately to offense, even though he does do that. And I would consider him what I think is the next wave of defensemen that he part, in part represents is transition defenders is basically what I think he is. it's not so much that he is constantly turning pucks over and then getting right on the offense, which like I said, he is doing that.

It's more that he's able to control what you're able to do next and diminish and reduce the threat of what you're able to do because you don't have the time to be able to process to make that next play. You would have to then make another play to someone else to then make that play. That's the effect. And I think transition defenders,

Like I said, that's part of what they do really well. The other thing that is I think he's exceptional at, which is also what I would say is a hallmark of these new, these defensemen, these transition defenders, they really excel on the weak side. So you'll notice that there's a lot of his transition plays, his best transition plays, come from when he is defending the weak side of the ice,

his gap, his anticipation of what's going to happen next, his ability to get on top of the next play, particularly when people are trying to break out and that weak side defense, weak side forward is trying to sprint out of the zone. He gets right on top of him, maybe prevents the puck from coming to him. He can intercept that pass.

Just his ability on the weak side is so key in defending the rush on a rush where the pass is going to come. He eliminates the middle of the ice as an option. I mean, he just has that ability to defend the weak side, which is a big, characteristic, I think, of these transition defenders, because that's usually when they're most effective in being able to create the next play that becomes dangerous or more effective for their own team.

And you see that quite a bit. And I think where it's most effective for this devil's team is when he's sort of, he's jumping that route in terms of like coming down the wall or keeping a puck alive in the offensive zone, right, where like they're trying to rim it around or they're trying to get it to the weak side forward so he can make a play up the ice and he jumps that route and he keeps it alive and the reason why i say that is because not only does it keep the puck in the zone but he's already displayed an ability to use like to leverage his offensive skill to stack a play on top of that right after he does it right so like he'll come down the wall knock a buck down or

intercept it and then immediately pass it back into the slot for a one-timer for one of his forwards who's standing there and we know that that's so difficult to defend for the other team because they're themselves already starting to transition up the ice themselves. Everyone's kind of discombobulated and out of position. And so you have these breaks and coverage. And they've scored a couple goals that way already where he would take us seemingly nothing play that an inferior defender would probably just by default sag back on and allow the other team to get it out of the zone.

And he jumps that, knocks it down, pass it in their middle, one timer, boom, they score. And so seeing him sort of stack those plays and it's like, it's tough to describe it. I guess we talk a lot about how hockey is so free flowing and all of these things tie together and you're constantly defending and attacking at the same time, I think that really encapsulates that, right? Because he's turning a potential transition or even defensive play into an offensive one within one or two seconds. And that's really fun to watch.

That's what I think really kind of helps capture what the modern game is all about these days. It is. There's so much, you know, the transition game is so critical because you're in it more than you're in anything else. You're in that transition phase most often. And, you know, one of the things also that's key is a lot of times support needs a little time to get to you. So, for example, when you change sides with the puck, you changed, everybody was on one side.

You've passed it to a guy who's on the other side, who's for a moment in time, on a bit of an island from a support perspective, It is going to take some time for the other people on your team to reroute, get back involved, and get over there. So absorb defensemen who see a puck go from one side to the other. The guys on an island, the attacking forwards on an island, and you absorb the play. What you're doing is allowing time for the opponent to organize their support. And so now it's becoming a play against you with speed, time, timing. everything in the offensive players a favor. So when Namitz is able to attack that play,

because the guy's on an island, he skates forwards, he pressures them, he reduces the amount of time that's available to the support. The support just doesn't get there. Now the guy doesn't have the same number of options. He's forced now to do all the options that you just suggested. He's got to push it forward, maybe get it in the zone. Maybe he ices it. Maybe he's got to turn back.

maybe he's got to try to buy time, but he's not threatening. He's not threatening. And that's the difference between kids like that. And these are kids now who can skate and they can defend skating forwards. And they're really effective at being able to move the puck after they get the transition. Like some of the passes this guy makes are phenomenal. Immediately like inside the first couple seconds of that transition, he is putting you on the defensive right away. and you're not really organized to do that.

And that's what I find so fascinating about this type of defender. And I think that, like I said, I think we're only going to see more and more and more of these types of kids coming into the league. And I'm all about it. Well, and why he's so becoming already just so invaluable for this devil's team. And part of this is, I think, something they're going to have to work on.

No team spends more time just generally in transition than they do, like in terms of just spending time in the neutral zone in going in either direction back and forth, right? Like I've been harping on this all season, but part of where they've regressed this year as a team is last year they went from being just a pure transition team themselves and a rush team into then stacking together offensive zone sequences and spending more time after that initial rush. So they weren't so one and done and then leaving themselves so vulnerable. And this year, they went all the way back down to 24th in Ozone time themselves. but they also don't give up any O's own time to the opposition. And that's because so much of the game that they play is just spent kind of going back and forth. And when you're getting the level of goaltending they've gone this season,

that certainly leaves you vulnerable. You don't have that safety net to support you. And so a guy like him, the reason why we're sort of talking right off the bat about some of these more subtle skills is he helps extend offensive zone sequences for them by doing this. And I think more of that is exactly what they need, like for all the concerns about their defensive play. defending off the Russian goaltending, one way to make sure you're not as exposed to that or vulnerable to it is just spending more time in the offensive zone, keeping the opposition pinned. And he already does that really well. And I think this devil's team needs more of that, if anything. I couldn't agree more. I think where this devil's team is is somewhat precluding to their overall development. And what I mean by that is the state of the goaltending and the state of their game, their inability to really,

understand and really take advantage of extending offensive zone sequences, what that does is it makes the coaching staff much more conservative. So they start talking a lot more about defending, they start caring about defending. It affects their pairings. I mean, if this team was flying along and all things being equal and the goaltending was improved, they were maybe 10 to 12 points further up in the standings,

would they be as resistant as they are now to the Hughes Namitz pairing? I don't know that they would. The Hughes Nimitz pairing feels inevitable. But because of the state of where they are, they're not able to do that because your goaltending has left you feeling very vulnerable and any mistake that these guys make ends up, could potentially end up in the back of the net.

Because to our point before when we were, talking about Philadelphia and their rush play, they, I thought, did an effective job. One of the reasons why they were so good was because they were able to not have a scoring chance for lead to a better scoring chance against. This is the devil's team. Exactly what we're talking about. They're won and done a lot. And the scoring chance that they're trying to create offensively tends to be less effective

than the one that they give up next because they're jumping D or, You know, if you have, I mean, Nemitz and Hughes, they could lead the rush themselves. They could be F1 and F2 on the rush. That's how, that's the type of players that they are, which leaves you feel invulnerable for plays going back the other way. And I think that's where in the overall development of the devil's team, that for me has felt a little bit frustrating because I feel like it's inevitable that those two are going to end up playing together, much the same as what we were talking about with Harley. playing with Heiskenen. I think eventually that's what's going to happen. And this is not to say that the development process that they're going through now

by each of them playing like you talked about, you know, playing on a shutdown pair, that there's no value in that. Of course there's value in that. And Hughes playing the role that he's playing. But it's just not the same as if you could move them together forward. So I think the state of the team makes it more. conservative than maybe it might be had they not been moving along and solved a lot of these issues as it relates to turning the rush into actually extended offensive zone time because

then they could take advantage of Nemitz and Hughes's ability to control the offensive zone exits, which is where what we're really talking about, about modern day defending. Yeah. And the sport logic statistical profile that really, I think, paints the picture that we're describing here where like they're 26th in goals against this season. And obviously the goalies we discussed at nauseam. I think everyone gets it like they haven't been good enough. But the situation they're putting them in where the 23rd in rush chances against their 26th and inner zone slot shots, despite the fact that they're only giving up the third fewest offensive zone time.

And that's because other teams just don't have to spend shifts. Right. It's that they're encouraging environment where they're going back and forth. And that can have some, I think, detrimental sort of psychological impacts on the way a team plays, right? Because you get burned by it a couple times. You're losing games. You're supposed to be winning. And then, of course, you're going to kind of compensate for that. And I think that's a word describing here where you don't really want to see that seep in.

But it could be certainly tricky. And I don't know. I'm curious for your take on this because what I had noticed was he, Nemitz has spent about 23% of his 5-on-5 minutes playing with Nico Hiss year this season. And he spent more than that with Jack Hughes. And the one thing I would say about that is, like, obviously you're going to have him playing with their best players regardless. But I kind of almost like to see a guy like him play a bit more with his here because what you're seeing, like it's that concept we talk about with the abs, right, where they had to learn over time how to play as a five-man unit in terms of when Kayla McCar goes behind the net or pinches deep in the offensive zone. you've gone Nathan McKinnon cycling back up and covering for him as a defenseman.

And it has to be so innate that you're not seeing him go and then realizing, oh, I should be going up there because by then it's already too late at times, right? You need to almost be moving at the exact same time as soon as the defenseman is going down. You're already working your way up and it's kind of just this free flowing five-man attack. And I think his year right now at this point of his career because of that Barkov type of like internal clock that he has of risk management and sometimes trading a bit of offense to get back in good position and stay above the puck defensively is a little bit better suited than a Jack Hughes who's going to be pushing just naturally more for offense and being more aggressive deep in the zone. And so sometimes

Nemitz can get a little bit caught deep himself and that can also sort of expedite a lot of these problems. And I think a lot of them might be ironed out by just getting him a bit more usage with an ego his year where all of a sudden now he can just fully embrace that role without worrying about someone being back covering for him. So what you're describing is the ability to insulate his instincts. That's what you're saying. You're trying to insulate his instincts and allow him to play in a much more instinctual way and trust his instincts when you're being protected through the ability of your center

like he's here who is going to err on the side of caution. more often than not, he'll be coming back through the middle of the ice. He can pick up his check and he's responsible for those. He'll play higher in the zone and that'll allow someone like Nimitz to put himself in a spot where he can play with a lot more instinct. To the degree that he's not able to play with as much of that instinct is the degree in which he's uncomfortable that he is protected. And so this is where it's all convoluted because, and not convoluted,

actually very clear. The goaltending situation is what it is, puts coaching staff into a much more conservative place. They're probably talking a lot more about defending than they probably would love to. And on the way in which the lines are set up as it relates to the deep pairings and the way in which they play in the offensive zone, all causes players, especially young players, to all of a sudden start to, you know, double check or, you know, make sure. And all these things, you're using all these adjectives to describe them just not playing as instinctual.

They're checking, double checking, making sure. And so those lead to hesitations or more conservative play. So the best part about Nimitz is when he first comes in the league, he's on fire. Like he was outstanding. His first five to ten games in the league, I thought he was unbelievable. And I've said this before. I think you get a real glimpse of a player, a better glimpse of a player, what's really true in their first few games in the NHL, which oftentimes that's kind of discounted. What God's first game in the NHL, like let them get going.

In my mind, that's one of the best evaluation tools because that's the time in which he's going to play most instinctual. And then as the season goes along, you're getting, you know, the environment of the team, the state of the team, the defense partner, the way that they're talking to you, the environment that's going on in terms of how much you're winning and losing, the way you're being coached, the threat of firing or like, you know, there's all this swirling of what's going to happen in New Jersey. That creates conservative environment. And the problem with a conservative environment in that sense is that kids like a Nimitz or Hughes,

they start to not play as instinctual. They start getting coached. And then that coaching leads to evaluation in their mind. So you don't always see the best of what they're doing. The fact that he and Hughes, for that matter, have been able to kind of keep it going for this long under this duress leads me to believe that they have the chops to really be high-end defensemen in this league. And that's what I'm most excited about.

to be able to still play with so much of this instinct under this, in this environment, which is very hostile at the moment and tenuous as to what's going to happen. I just love that because these are the things you start to see with young defensemen, which makes it more tough. Because once they start checking, double checking,

little hesitation here, little hesitation there, you start backing up, you start that's when you run into trouble. And that's something to monitor with a young player, like a Nimitz. Yeah, because you can really, I want him being true to himself, right?

Because I think you made a great point there. Like, what he is is special. And I want to tap into that as often as possible without the second guessing, the thinking, the getting yourself caught in that middle ground where you're awkwardly figuring out if you have that support looking behind you, and then you're a step late

and you didn't accomplish anything. And then you're caught in no man's land, right? Like, he's so special in, you see that he wants to get even more involved than he's already been. There's a number of instances as we're going to watch his offensive zone clips here where he'll realize

that the puck's on the wall and he's on the weak side and he's just waiting for the guy, the forward who's up near him to turn his head so that he can sprint down to the net and make himself available as an option or then work a rebound and just be down there. And that's great because

they have a lot of forwards who are very adept at making those high skill level cross-team passes east-west, right? whether it's a Hughes or a Brad or a history. They have a lot of guys who could do that. But if he does it a couple times and the puck's turned over or someone didn't go back and support him and then they give up a goal against off the rush, his coach is going to be mad at him.

It's going to look ugly on the stat sheet. And then that's naturally going to force him to maybe adjust. And that's what we want to fight against, right? So I think that's really important because those like little instances of brilliance that he shows when he times and jumps and activates down low and just move. moves off of the blue line, I want to see that as often as possible. And they need to create an environment where that's encouraged and not like doubted or sort of frowned upon because it's not working for them.

Yeah. The word that stands out for me with players like this is the better they play, the more connected they are to the play. And what we're talking about when you start to have hesitations or any type of like playing a little bit more conservative or you're caring a lot more about certain aspects of your game, you start thinking about these things and not just playing as instinctual as we would like him to play. That's the impact.

The impact is that they end up starting to get disconnected from the play. And we want a player like him to stay as connected and in the play as possible so that he can make those reads. And he's close enough that when he does see the read, that he's able to activate on that read. To your point, he's waiting for that defense, that defensive forward to turn his head and the environment, you know, the play starts to materialize. He reads the exact right moment, but he's close enough that he just takes to jump down. Or you see him, he's already kind of half sliding down like ever so slowly. He's positioning himself into a better position to pounce

and then he pounces at just the right time. You don't do that when you're not feeling protected and comfortable. And that's what you want to try to protect with a young defenseman like this, is you're trying to protect the preserve the length of time in which he can play with the most amount of instinctual value. And the way you do that is you create the protections, and then you also keep him connected and encourage connectivity to the play and not encourage disconnecting or falling out of the play.

play for the purpose of trying to, you know, defend the next two on one to come in your way or the next three on two with, you know, and you got only a back checker coming because your partner's not there, all these other, all these factors that weigh into it. I think that that's a really interesting piece as a release of the development of the. The good news is you have Nimitz and you have Hughes there, two really young cornerstone franchise caliber defensemen who are basically also they are, which a key part of. it is they are also salary controlled for a while. And you're trying to advance their development,

but at the same time, the team is under fire. It's a really fascinating part of where they are as a franchise right now. And it'll be very interesting to see, you know, if those two players can continue to push their own development, even at a time where it's hostile. And you would really,

you would think that there's going to be a lot more encouragement to be more conservative, especially as their threat of changing jobs continues to swirl around in New Jersey. All right, Gerald, this is a good spot for us to put a pin in our conversation. So let's take our break now. And then when we come back, we'll pick things right back up and keep chatting about Shimon Nemitz. You are listening to the HockeyPedioCast streaming on the SportsNair Radio Network. We're back here on the HockeyPedocatioCast, joined by Gerald Belfry today as we do our deep diet. of young devil's defenseman, Shimon Nemitz.

Well, you know what's really impressed me about Nemitz's game as we transitioned to the offensive part of thing in the offensive zone? We talked a little bit about his movement there. But it's the maturity of his game when he's working the top of the zone and when he's kind of quarterbacking at the top of the umbrella.

And in particular in the power play because initially, obviously, he was in the AHL to start the season. Dougie Hamilton is working the top power play unit. Man Luke Hughes gets the majority of that, so we don't necessarily get to see him that much with the top unit. But when he's out there, and even at 5-1-5, I love what he's trying to accomplish there because you can see time and time again.

He'll shoot it if the lane is there just to keep you honest. And then good things can happen off of tips and rebounds and all of that. I'm sure he's going to score a certain level of goals just because of how skilled he is. But I love, like, his intentions are he wants to suck in that top forward as close to him as possible and really sell the shot so that he can pass it off for a forward to take a more dangerous shot. closer at a better angle off a one time, right? And I love what he's been accomplishing doing that and how smooth it is. Obviously, he's got the passing ability and skill as a passer to actually execute it. But I just think, like, the way he sees and feels the game in that regard is already so sophisticated because sometimes you can see young defenders come into the game, especially

if they're the last guy back of the blue line. You know, they're worried about turning the puck over or doing anything too crazy and really getting singled out for it. So they'll make very, like, safe plays. They'll just kind of pass it off. They'll bump it to their partner or they'll just work it down. With him, like you can tell he's comfortable holding on to the puck, suck it in the defender, and then passing it off and creating a high danger

opportunity for a teammate. And I just love that. Like that's what I want to see from my defenseman at the top of the umbrella. I want to see him using that time and space to make, to improve the conditions for their teammates and turn a good shot into a great shot. And he's already doing that very efficiently.

Yeah, what you're talking about to me is also a hallmark characteristic of a number one or an elite level defenseman, which is the ability to beat F1 in all three zones. So whether you're in the defensive zone, you can make a pass that beats F1 or you can find a way to manage pressure that beats or traps F1, put your team at a numerical advantage or an advantage in the neutral zone, the same thing. He gets the puck in the neutral zone and he's constantly trapping or beating F1. And then now what you're talking about is the offensive zone,

which is when you're talking about improving the conditions and advancing the puck into areas that are dangerous, what you're talking about is the ability to beat F1. The primary defensive forward who is on him, he actively does things to manipulate that player in a way in which he can beat him. He can pass to the interior. There's lots of times he'll fake a pass, and then he'll pass it to one of the flank,

to one of the flanks, but it's done in a way in which he's trapping people and making a play for someone else that is now dangerous. That's an attitude and a habit of beating F1 consistently. And that in my mind, in an evaluation or a projection of a can this defenseman be a franchise number one type defenseman, the ability to beat F1 in all three zones is, one of the things that I would look for. And he does it in spades. He does it all the time.

And I also love, you know, we talk about his ability to skate forwards and his skating in general. And he has an outstanding ability to move laterally. And he can pass inside of movement. And that is another, I think, great characteristic. He does a great job managing space. But it's because of his ability. to move. And I think that's another really key distinction of why he's so effective in the offensive zone and in creating some of these really interesting plays that he's able to do.

You know, hockey can be a very like random and chaotic game with the puck bouncing and wild things happening on the ice. But the NHL is is so competitive and so by design in so many ways in terms of preparation and just how good the players are and how prepared they are for everything. the things rarely happen by accident. And what I mean by that is generally, if someone is open in a situation, it's usually on purpose. Like it's by design. They're there for a reason and the other team is comfortable with it.

And so it's one thing to just have the pockets of the fencemen and pass it to a guy that's open because they're probably giving it to them. But then it's up to them to do something and they might not be a position to do anything that impactful. What he's doing is he's getting his guys open is what we're saying, right? Like he is forcing the defense to come to him, whether it's on the breakout and passing it off to his partner and beating that F1 or whether it's in the offensive zone and setting up a shot off the flank. And so he's turning a situation where a guy was previously covered. He's forcing the defense to adjust. And then he's getting it to him.

And I think that's why, like you look, 12 of his 14 assists so far, primary. The corner of Corey Schneider's tracking. He's already in like the 80th percentile in the league in scoring chance assists. Like he's legitimately driving offensive results and underlying impacts. And the reason why he's doing that is because of these concepts we're talking about. And so I think that's that's super high level because I think that's an important distinction for a defenseman. It's one thing to just make a simple little pass to a guy that's open. And there's certainly a time and place for that, like sometimes just take what the other team gives you.

But he's almost like he's working on a higher wavelength where he's trying to create stuff that isn't even there initially once he gets the puck. Yes, he can see it differently. And then he manifested by his movement, the way in which he manipulates the player and his timing, his use of space. That's what you're talking about about that next level ability to be able to manufacture offensive chances and his ability to beat F1 consistently. The other thing that I think really separates him, and I think is one of the things I'm really excited about is I think this guy can really shoot the puck off the pass, which is a great skill to have for anybody, but for a defenseman up at the top, if you can shoot it hard off the pass

and it's dangerous and it can get through, which he's shown an ability to do that. He's created a lot of goals. It doesn't score necessarily himself off that play, but he creates dangerous second chance opportunities for others because of his ability to shoot off the pass. That only accentuates everything else that we're talking about. When he's at the offensive blue line,

can shoot it off the pass, that changes how you defend him. And now because you have to defend him so honestly, because you're concerned about his shot off the pass, what I mean honestly, I mean, like, you're not not choosing to be in the shot lane. You're going to be in the shot lane every time as a defensive forward. It's more the spacing that you're going to give him the time, how long or how early you're going to get in that shot lane, because someone who shoots well off the pass, They don't stand in that space.

They're sliding or fading away slightly to continue to improve that shot lane. You as a defensive forward, you're now having to move with him. So he's drawing you because he's the threat of the one-timer. You're already having to maintain that make sure you're in the shot lane the whole time. Because if he gets that puck, he's going to be able to shoot it and it's dangerous. So that changes the impact is now if he, gets it, he fakes that shot, he has you now moving laterally. Now he can then come off your heels and open up other opportunities. So he's naturally beating you as an F1 just by forcing you to

honor his threat of the one-timer, which I think is that that's what gets you even more excited about the possibilities that he has as a really a premier offensive generating defenseman. Well, when you were talking about this earlier about this idea of this brave new world and exciting future of where him and Luke Hughes are playing together and it's really just everything we talk about this sort of the five-man game and how defense are playing off each other, I think part of what encourages me about that or makes me think it really could work down the line is I think their skills that's are complementary in terms of what they're more comfortable beating you with, at least at this point, I'm sure both guys are going to evolve as they get into their mid-20s. But right now I think Nemitz is he's kind of like looking to create a play for another in a way and sort of pass the puck off or sort of lure you in and then pass it off into space where Hughes and I don't blame him for this because if I could move half as well or a tenth as well as he would, I would be doing this all the time as well. But he wants to like he wants to use that biggest strength of this to create a play with his feet. And so I think those two guys playing off each other. It's not necessarily two young skilled defensemen where they both have to. do the same thing to be effective.

I think in this case, they actually could work because certain inmates can defer a bit more and allow him to sort of skate around and more. And then all of a sudden, he'll be doing the other stuff to sort of fill in the gaps. And so it actually makes sense in that regard because sometimes it's not as simple as, all right, just put your two best young defensemen together. Their skill, they'll figure it out. They might. But in this case, I think it actually, there's some higher level credence to it.

I certainly, when I watch the two of them, I see a pair that for sure I would, it would be very hard for me not to want to see that as early as you can for all the reasons that that you've given. I mean, the way Luke Hughes moves, he, you know, his ability to beat F1 with his feet where Nemitz does it most often off the pass, the left-right combination, both the guys can shoot it off the pass. they can switch in the offensive zone, so they're both on their off-wing side

and be very dangerous that way. I see two guys that just have an ability to be able to do a variety of things. And we haven't even talked about. Hughes is so fast, as well as Nimitz has that ability to skate forwards defending. I think that they could fast forward

the need for New Jersey to figure, out a consistent, heavier offensive zone game that allows them to control that side of the ice. Like get the puck on that side of the ice and kind of keep them there and be able to hold the puck there, continue to generate chances, but win the puck back and sustained pressure. I think that the way these two guys play, they have all the makings of, a defense pair that could really control the opposition's exit and really put you in a spot

where you could you could control that half of the ice and play a really good half ice game, which they don't currently show as much of, which is in my mind, the biggest Achilles heel that they have as a team is they just can't sustain the offensive zone time and they get into these track meet situations without the goal tending to support it. Yeah. No, certainly. I think that's what kind of impresses me so much about Nemence's game is already, like I mentioned kind of this idea of filling in the gaps and how that would work. But you just, you just see it. And let's talk a little about the breakouts and kind of the transition here because I think you see it there quite a bit. Like he's certainly showing times. I mean, we flashed that video earlier where he takes the puck behind his own net and he just skates up the ice, eludes a couple of guys, dances Adam Morrison, who's a very good defender in his own right and gets a scoring chance off of it. Like he takes the puck. He's got that in his bag.

I think he can do that if you give him the time and space to do so. But he's also very comfortable making the subtler play to help a teammate out by going back, being the initial retriever, passing it off to a partner, beating F1 with a pass, and then skating up the middle of the ice almost as a second center or as the weak side defender and joining the rush that way. And the reason why that's important is while I love a lot of the players as Devils team has, there's a bit of a concentration of talent in that regard, right? I think that's where a guy like Timel Meyer has struggled a little bit

and adapting to playing in New Jersey to go along with like playing on his off wing and the injuries and all that. It's he came from a place where every time he got the puck, he was basically allowed to just bullyball it up the ice, put his shoulder down, and attack the net as the primary puck carrier. And he obviously was very productive doing so, and I'm sure he enjoyed doing that greatly. Now he comes to a team where if he's on the ice,

a Jack Hughes is out there, a Jasper Brad is out there. And guess what? They're just better at that than he is. And so now he has to figure out a way to play off of the puck and contribute in different ways. And for a player who's 28 years old or whatever he is and has already been in the league and been as successful as he has, that's a really tough adjustment at that point of their career. And I have no worries, obviously a different position. But a guy like Nemitz is just able to play in that environment off of the puck in a way as well,

where he doesn't have to be the one carrying it and lugging it up himself and doing all that heavy lifting, he can defer to those guys and still make an impact off of the puck. And that's a massive skill for a team that sort of composed the way this devil's team is up front. You couldn't have articulated it any better. I was thinking about the pairing of like a potential pairing with Hughes. And Hughes is very much a strong, very much a strong side defender. He's going to take the puck from you.

He's going to keep the puck on his stick and he's going to beat F1 with his feet as often as he can where Nimitz, I think is much more of that, like to your point, he's so much more effective as the weak side defender, even though he does have all this, he does have offensive talents where he can do some of the same things. And that's not also to say that Hughes can't play off the puck because he does it also very effectively. It's just what they're more inclined to do or where their skill set is best. That's the thing with Nemitz that really stands out for me is his ability on the playing on the weak side both defensively and offensively in all three zones is really impressive for a kid his age and for any age really and it's amazing to see

the way in which he which he does it and you see it in transition because there's so often he's he's stealing the puck and then making that interior pass like to the middle of the ice to somebody skating onto it with speed he does it over and over and over again he's a guy who can facilitate the movement of the puck but he makes the you know when I was talking about before I was I was talking about like the ability to like delay the dangerous puck right well he has the ability to make that dangerous pass right away so we can steal the puck and boom it's already into the middle of the ice where the guy with speed or boom it's already a cross ice pass to a guy who's flying who can take the corner or he finds the two on one on the entry because he's able to make a play and he finds that he he is passing ability is outstanding and he's able to make the next play in a dangerous play that that sets the table for other people and like the transition game that he has to me that's what is most impressive is is that ability to just make that quick play and that's what we see in your

clips over and over and over again. He makes the steal, the next thing you know, boom, it's up there. And he's making that next play that sets the table for a two-on-one on the entry or speed or whatever. And, you know, that type of guy is so valuable. And it represents so much of where this game is going offensively. Because rush like we normally have thought about the rush is so hard to create now. Like in the playoffs, try to create a rush consistently where you're going to get odd man situations.

I mean, it's so hard to do. So you have to find different ways to be able to create the rush. I always talk about reentry because I know that the offensive zone and being able to kill the exit and force you into a chip out so that we can get it and turn it back in. That's a way of creating another type of rush. This is what I'm talking about with Nemitz. he's able to create a different rush. He can do it in transition.

You think you're on offense. Next thing, you know, he's over there on the weak side. He's on a weak side fold. He steals the puck. Or he's on a, you try to pass it across, and his gap is so good. He intercepts the pass. He does all these things.

And then he makes that next play, that boom, they're in transition. They're going the other way. That's kind of how you're going to have to create that offense. and he's going to be a big part of that. And in last year's playoffs, I think that's what really exposed the devils. They couldn't get that offensive rush game going

to the point where they could overwhelm like they had done in the regular season. And they only kind of had that one way where they come literally 200 feet to do it. This guy, he represents an ability to do it a little different and create a rush change. out of something that didn't look like it was going to be a positive for you before two seconds ago. And now you're on a two on one on an entry.

That's what's cool about this kid. You really see that on those neutral zone like re-entries and the reloads, right? Like depending on who he's on the ice with, he's either a pace setter in terms of like he'll speed them up. Or if he's already out there with Jack Hughes, he's an enabler because he will allow them to play the way they want to play because he'll get the puck back for him and then immediately, boom, they're off and running. And that's a very important skill. And I think it's no coincidence that he's been already successful as he has. And I can't wait to watch more of him as this season goes along and into the future of his career.

Daryl, this was a blast. I'm really glad we got to do Emmett. This was a really fun one with a lot of interesting concepts that I think we hint at and kind of talk tangentially about a lot and got to put them all together talking about him. So that was really fun. Hopefully Devils fans enjoyed that. And we'll be back soon with you. everyone go check out belfry hockey we'll be back soon with more of the hockey pdo cast as always streaming on the sports night radio network