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Young Defenseman Quickly Becoming Devils Legend
Nov 8, 2025; Newark, New Jersey, USA; New Jersey Devils defenseman Simon Nemec (17) skates with the puck against the Pittsburgh Penguins during the third period at Prudential Center. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images John Jones-Imagn Images

Young Defenseman Quickly Becoming Devils Legend

Originally posted on Breakaway on SI  |  By Samuel Len  |  Last updated Dec 11, 2025 7:00 AM ET

For all the chaos and surprises this NHL season has delivered, it’s hard to find a bigger breakout story than Simon Nemec. Just two years removed from being drafted second overall by the New Jersey Devils behind Juraj Slafkovský in 2022, Nemec has vaulted from an underwhelming young defender to full-blown franchise pillar. His rise hasn’t been slow or subtle, either — it’s been loud, spectacular, and impossible to ignore.

Nemec’s NHL debut came on December 1, 2023, after a 65-game stretch with the Utica Comets. He played 60 NHL games that season, finishing with 3 goals, 16 assists, and a –7 rating. His second season brought more turbulence, splitting time between the AHL and NHL and posting only 4 points in 27 games before being sent down again.

But this season? Completely different story. Nemec hasn’t just taken a step — he’s taken a leap worthy of highlight montages and franchise history books.

A Breakout Season 2 Years in the Making

Only 30 games into the season, Nemec is on pace to double his rookie production with 7 goals and 9 assists. He’s become one of the league’s most electrifying offensive defensemen, a bright spot for a Devils lineup riddled with injuries and inconsistency.

Sure, his defensive game still needs refining, but his hockey IQ and his ability to jump into soft areas, anticipate plays, and strike in the offensive zone more than make up for it. Especially when he’s scoring game-winners as often as he does.

And then came November. One wild week of hockey that flipped his reputation from “promising young D-man” to “future Devils legend.”

The Week That Made Nemec a Star

It started on November 10, when Nemec tied the game with under five seconds left in regulation in what became a 3–2 overtime loss to the Islanders. Two days later, on November 12, he followed it up with a hat trick — scoring both the game-tying goal and the overtime winner — in a 4–3 classic against the Chicago Blackhawks.

Then, on November 15, he added the shootout winner against the Washington Capitals. And later in the month, on November 26, he struck again with another overtime winner against the St. Louis Blues.

Even when Macklin Celebrini briefly stole the spotlight with his own overtime hat trick just six days later, on a night when we saw a hat trick of hat tricks in the NHL, Nemec’s week stood out as one of the most remarkable stretches any defenseman has put together in decades.

The Chicago Game: A Legend-Making Night

Of all his performances, the one that will live forever came against the Blackhawks. This was Nemec's masterpiece that may end up defining his career. He became the youngest defenseman in NHL history to record both a hat trick and an overtime goal in the same game.

Only eight other defensemen have ever done it, and the last was Jakob Chychrun in 2021. He also joined P.K. Subban (2011) and Rasmus Ristolainen (2015) as the only defensemen 21 or younger in the past 30 years to record an NHL hat trick.

Scoring three goals as a defenseman is rare. Completing the hat trick in overtime to win the game is something so extraordinary that even veteran players talk about it like mythology. But in Nemec’s case, this wasn’t an isolated moment of brilliance.

During last season’s playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes, he scored the double-overtime winner in Game 3, which was the Devils’ only victory of the series (video below). His clutch gene didn't develop overnight, but the month of November brought it into the national spotlight.

I genuinely can’t remember the sentiment around a player in any sport changing as drastically or as quickly as it has with Simon Nemec. In the span of a month, he went from a young defenseman still trying to find consistency to a must-watch player whose highlights circulate nightly.

For a Devils team searching for stability and identity, Nemec hasn’t just stepped up — he’s given the franchise a new face of confidence, composure, and star-level potential.

This article first appeared on Breakaway on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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