3. Call up Simon Nemec
We are fully aware of the can of worms that comes with calling up Simon Nemec, but at the end of the day, a player needs to have a chance to earn his place on the roster. The Devils came into the season thinking Nemec was a long-term part of the roster, but he was pretty dreadful in October, and he was demoted to the minors. He had a rough go for about six weeks, but he’s been raking for a while now.
Nemec is up to 18 points in 25 games with the Utica Comets. He didn’t have a goal for Utica prior to Christmas, but he came out of the break on fire. He scored two goals in that first goal after the break, and he’s totaled five goals in 11 games. With those five goals, he’s totaled 14 points in those 11 games.
Of course, in the middle of all that, there’s the controversy surrounding his comments in a Slovak newspaper, talking about his frustrations about being held in the AHL. He even mentioned the words “trade request,” but that appears now to be a leading question by the reporter (asking if he wanted to request a trade like David Jiricek did with Columbus).
Bringing Nemec back to the NHL would make it harder to eventually send him back down, but he’s earned this promotion. The Devils need to replace one of their defensemen with someone more offensive, or they could go with seven defensemen and get creative. Either way, Nemec deserves to be in the lineup this week.