On Tuesday afternoon, the Calgary Flames made a big splash in the trade market, acquiring 2022 second overall selection Simon Nemec from the New Jersey Devils in a pretty significant move for the local hockey club.

In Nemec, the Flames acquire a 22-year-old right-shot defender who’s already played at the Olympics and racked up 155 NHL appearances. Adding such a significant piece on the blueline leads to further questions about the ripple effects of Nemec’s arrival in Calgary.

Let’s dive into them!

Nemec has played almost exclusively on the right side at the NHL level. His arrival adds to a pretty impressive crop of righties in the Flames system, including 2024 first-rounder Zayne Parekh, Hunter Brzustewicz and Henry Mews. Most fans’ thoughts immediately went to Parekh, previously the undisputed king of the rightie blueline prospects, and pondered his future.

Well, the answer may be pretty simple: Parekh can play on the left side, too.

Late in the year, when Parekh was paired with Zach Whitecloud, Parekh played on the left and Whitecloud was on the right. The pairing worked quite well, especially in the offensive zone, and Flames general manager Craig Conroy suggested both in his appearance on Sportsnet 960 The Fan’s Flames Talk and in his interview with the Flames’ site that Parekh could be on the left next season. Per Conroy in both interviews, Parekh really liked playing on the left side (and expressed that in his exit chats with the coaching staff).

In other words: it’s probably not unfair to expect Parekh to play on Whitecloud’s left and Nemec to be on the right side of probably Kevin Bahl. That’s not a bad top two pairings. Parekh probably gets top unit power play time, with Nemec getting second unit PP and some penalty killing time mixed in.

Not necessarily. Again, per Conroy on Flames Talk, the player you take at sixth overall probably doesn’t play NHL hockey in 2026-27. Heck, odds are they might not even play pro at all. So you do not need to make decisions on the long-term future of your team based on adding a really good rightie defenceman – especially if, as noted earlier, Parekh might have a future on the left side.

So if the Flames had previously felt that, say, Carson Carels or Keaton Verhoeff were the best player available for them, adding Nemec isn’t going to change their calculus.

Well, for next season, Brzustewicz is waiver exempt and Mews is headed back to college. So in the immediate future, it makes it a little tougher for Brzustewicz to push his way into full-time NHL duty in 2026-27 – though, if we’re thinking out loud, you can potentially place Brayden Pachal on waivers and have Whitecloud, Nemec and Brzustewicz as your everyday righties. They have some flexibility for 2026-27.

But let’s call a spade a spade: adding a high-end rightie like Nemec ratchets up the level of competition for right-side spots long-term. But iron sharpens iron, as they say, and we’ll see how everyone responds to battling for roster spots. We’re arguably entering the portion of the Flames’ asset accumulation phase where there will be increasing competition for NHL roster spots overall, so we’re fascinated to see how things shake out over the next two or three seasons as established veterans have their contracts expire (and some of them are phased out in favour of youngsters).

Whatever way you slice it, adding Nemec is a big move for the Flames, and we’ll be feeling the ripple effects for awhile moving forward.