Dom's 16 Stats article.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6859127/2025/12/04/16-stats-sabres-wilson-red-wings/

"16. Nemec’s questionable defensive game
When it comes to defensemen, it’s easy to be fooled by points. Simon Nemec has been on a tear this season with 15 points in 26 games, a 47-point pace that suggests he’s arrived. But below the surface, there’s still a lot of trouble with his game — especially defensively.

With Nemec on the ice, the Devils give up a team-high 3.24 xGA/60 despite Nemec playing mostly sheltered minutes. Even his recent stint playing over 20 minutes per night hasn’t seen a material jump in minute difficulty (he’s fifth among the team’s defensemen in offensive quality of competition) and in that time, his xGA/60 is still sitting at a team-worst 3.36.

It’s nice that Nemec has unlocked his offensive game and his scoring does matter, enough to earn a solid plus-1.4 Offensive Rating. But his play without the puck also matters, and in his case, it seems to matter a whole lot more. Nemec is currently sporting a minus-3.5 Defensive Rating this season, the third-worst mark in the league ahead of only Alex Romanov and Logan Mailloux. That’s after finishing last year at minus-4.5 in just 27 games, a pace only matched by Jack Johnson.

Nemec is still young and it’s possible he figures things out. But the list of elite defensemen who ever looked this poor defensively is extremely short."

13 comments

  2. mostly sheltered minutes LOL. In the last month has played only once under 20mins, this does not suggest sheltered minutes. 😀  But the list of elite defensemen who ever looked this poor defensively is extremely short – this is extremely exaggerated.

  3. The kids 21 years old he’s playing great in my opinion and if it wasn’t for him who knows where we would be.  Hes basically a Hamilton 9 years younger and making 8 mil less… 

  4. He and Luke have a ton of weight added onto them this year with the injuries we’ve had on d. I’m not sure how you can say he’s been sheltered with many games played over 20 min.

  6. People really proving Dom’s point of his point production clouding people’s view of him. Like he’s just talking straight numbers and if his xga/60 is that low and he’s playing as much as he is…

  7. I checked the stats and nemec is 5th on the team for toi, only behind dougie, Nico, and hughses. I think he’s been solid this year, even if his defense could use work, I can excuse it for him straight up stealing games

  8. I actually think that Keefe has done a really good job of sheltering Nemec with good matchups, and picking his spots so he can maximize his offensive value.

    +/- isn’t a perfect stat, but the fact that he’s second in the team by that metric while also ranking near the bottom in expected goals against suggests great deployment.

  10. You want your defensemen to have good defensive numbers, but you always want some with fire power. The bouchards, the ghosts, etc. The good news is he’s still super young and has a lot of time to get better defensive.

  11. Considering his offense literally won several games recently, I can give him a partial pass on defensive. Luke has been much the same but w/o the GWGs.

  12. I love how this fails to take into account literally anything beyond just Nemo’s stats.

    who is he playing with? what’s going on with the goaltending when he’s on the ice? what is the forward group that’s on the ice and how are they contributing or not defensively?

    I didn’t realize Nemo was alone out there all the time.

    like all these things matter.

    fun fact! earlier in the season especially when Marky was going through his woes, the save percentage when Nemo-Dilly were on the ice was BELOW .800. so how is that all on Nemo?

    also this fails to take into account that entire stretch of hockey in November where Nemo allowed no goals against when he was on the ice. I think it was like six or seven games long.

    I’m going to choose to be happy about Nemo’s play and how much trust he’s been given and how he’s flourishing this season and allow him the time he needs to hone is defensive skills better than just looking at straight numbers and deciding he’s a lost cause.

    but everyone else can keep shitting on him so he can be our little secret gem.

  13. This obsession is crazy. Dude probably can’t wait to leave.

    Like analytics is nice and all, but they never tell the full story. Take away the goals that are just “fooling” us and Devils drop from 5th in the East to 12th.

    Also I wonder what “sheltered minutes” mean, since he averaged about 23-24 minutes per night in November

Leave a Reply