today 07:05
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Šimon Nemec scored his tenth goal of the season in the AHL over the weekend. Just for context, how big a deal it is: among rookies, only Marek Malík and star Brent Burns managed to score more goals in history. They both scored eleven. Only eight backs have more goals in the farm hockey league than the Slovak talent, but not one of them is under the age of 21.
The headlines during the season belonged to Juraj Slafkovský for a long time, which was understandable. The draft unit and the season immediately in the NHL attracted well-deserved attention. However, the German was quietly moving through the year to such an extent that we can now slowly claim that he is an NHL “ready player”. Loosely translated to a hockey player who can play in the best league in the world.
We will find out in the next few days whether it will be for a few matches already this season. At the time of writing, New Jersey had five games left in the regular season. The Devils are still fighting for the best possible position in the playoffs, so it was questionable whether the chance would come.
But at this point it doesn’t matter how it ends. Šimon Nemec’s move after going overseas is going according to plan. At the beginning of the season, he did not have as many offensive opportunities and did not score the points that fans saw from him in the extra league. The reason was logical. The coaches tested his defensive skills and put him in positions where he was primarily supposed to prevent goals.
Gradually, however, he got more freedom in the offensive. The result is high time on the ice, space in the power play, the mentioned ten goals and almost half a point per game. As Šimon himself likes to joke, it is probably easier to score in the AHL than in the extra league, where he scored six goals in the Nitra jersey last year, including the playoffs.
The growth of the performance of our super talent is evidenced by a comparison of how his game looked last year at the Olympics, then in the extra league playoffs and especially at the World Cup. The screamers pointed to his mistake in the quarter-finals, after which the Finns scored, but that was an exception.
The German otherwise played very well and was the second best Slovak defender at the tournament after Martin Fehérváry. In the ongoing season, the Utica Comets will probably reach the AHL playoffs, but they will not be among the favorites there. If they fall out and New Jersey puts the youngster in the world championship, our fans can look forward to big things.
