Craig Conroy’s off-season to-do list just had a major item crossed off.

On Monday, the Calgary Flames announced they’ve signed restricted free agent defenceman Simon Nemec to a five year contract with a $7.25 million average annual value. He’ll be eligible to become an unrestricted free agent when the contract expires after the 2030-31 season. Based on Nemec getting three NHL years of service during his entry-level contract – he was on the New Jersey roster for 40+ NHL games in all three seasons – this deal buys one UFA year.

The 22-year-old Nemec is a right shot defenceman hailing from Liptovsky Mikulas, Slovakia. He was the second overall selection by the New Jersey Devils in the 2022 NHL Draft, but never quite found his footing there during his entry-level years. He split each of his first two seasons between the Devils and the AHL’s Utica Comets before he finally became an undisputed full-time NHLer last season, playing 68 games and posting 26 points.

But with the Devils having defenders like Dougie Hamilton, Luke Hughes, Brett Pesce, Jonas Siegenthaler and Jonathan Kovacevic already in-house, it was a bit of a challenge for Nemec to carve out a bigger role for himself – and earn a bigger payday – and that’s likely what led to him being available for the Flames to acquire. (We can debate the merits of the Devils holding onto several defenders in the late 20s and early 30s at the expense of Nemec another time.)

The Flames acquired Nemec back on June 23, with the Flames sending the Devils minor-league defender Etienne Morin, the Rangers’ 2026 second-round pick, Vegas’ 2027 first-round pick and Colorado’s 2028 first-round pick – effectively using extra picks acquired from previous trades – and the Flames also receiving forward Maxim Tsyplakov.

The likely comparison contracts used by the two sides in their discussions both came in-division: Los Angeles signed Brandt Clarke to a five year, $7.4 million AAV deal (he has higher offensive numbers than Nemec) and Anaheim signed Pavel Mintyukov to a five year, $7.2 million AAV deal (he has lower offensive numbers than Nemec). Given the importance of Nemec to what the Flames are building, locking him down to a multi-year deal made a lot of sense for all involved.

Nemec now has the third-largest cap hit among Flames players for the upcoming season, trailing only Jonathan Huberdeau ($10.5 million) and Dustin Wolf ($7.5 million).

With Carson Carels potentially going pro after his freshman year at the University of North Dakota, the Flames’ blueline group appears to be solidifying around Nemec, Carels, Kevin Bahl and Zayne Parekh for the foreseeable future. All things considered, they seem to be in decent shape going forward.