Devils deadline notes: On Nemec, depth on defense, and adding multiple forwards

One way or another, the New Jersey Devils should be active leading up to Friday's deadline.

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The trade deadline is just a few days away and there are a ton of moving parts for Tom Fitzgerald and the New Jersey Devils to navigate.

Let’s touch on a few of them.

On Simon Nemec

It sounds like the Devils don’t intend to put Nemec on the table for trade unless it is for the perfect player, be it a high-end piece who also comes with control or a true gamebreaker like Mikko Rantanen.

Put another way, he’s unlikely to be moved. Perfectly justifable.

Nemec hasn’t had the season anyone wanted or expected but he was (mostly) quite good playing a lot of minutes as a rookie and he dominated the AHL before being recalled.

He only just turned 21 so there’s a lot of runway left in his development. I still think there’s a good player in there. And I don’t think the time is ticking on his value; there’d be a lot of interest in the summer should the Devils wish to re-evaluate then.

For my money, Nemec played his best game of the season against Dallas. He was effective breaking out of the defensive zone, he was moving his feet and sprinting the ice to make it easier for the Devils to break through the neutral zone, and he was involved in the final third.

He posted a 70 xGF% and tied Luke Hughes for the blueline lead with three primary shot assists at 5v5.

Devils searching for depth on defense