Šimon Nemec doesn’t stop scoring goals, he scored his seventh this season at night.
Only Jakob Chychrun (11), Cale Makar, Zach Werenski (both 9) and Matthew Schaefer (8) are ahead of him in the scoring chart among defensemen. The German is in fifth place with Rasmus Andersson.
The German is currently also playing in the first power formation, his competitors Dougie Hamilton and Luke Hughes start together in the second.
After a successful November, coach Sheldon Keefe gives him a lot of space in the power forward, he played 19:06 minutes in the last ten games, while Hamilton played 18:33 and Hughes played 11:28.
However, he scored the goal in a five-on-five game. He tied it at 1:1, New Jersey finally won 4:3 in Ottawa.
Simon Nemec lets it rip and we’re all even! pic.twitter.com/zippUNPKG8
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) December 10, 2025
It was the first win for the Devils after five losses, the results reflected the absence of the best player Jack Hughes. In November, during the team dinner, he cut himself on a broken glass so badly that it required surgery, and he will return to the ice in January at the earliest.
Morning with the NHL is an article in which we regularly address one topic from the best hockey league in the world and provide a short summary of the night’s events.
The battle for the first defender continues
“The Devils don’t have a better story this season than the unexpected breakthrough of Šimon Nemec. He has brought a breath of fresh air to a club in dire need of a true first-choice defender, as Dougie Hamilton’s performance curve is declining and Luke Hughes has yet to have a breakthrough season.” wrote after the German’s successful November, journalist JP Gambatese, who regularly publishes his analyzes about the Devils for the blog Infernal Access.
According to him, the battle for the first quarterback in New Jersey is still ongoing. “It would be premature to fit the German into this role, as he has been performing like this since November, but the fact is that he has been playing as the first defender for weeks now.”
But if the German wants to keep the position of the offensive unit, he has to start
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