CALGARY — The Calgary Flames have acquired defenceman Simon Nemec and right-winger Maxim Tsyplakov from the New Jersey Devils for conditional first-round draft picks in both 2027 and 2028, a second-round pick Saturday and prospect Etienne Morin.
Both conditional first-round picks are top-10 protected, meaning Calgary keeps them if its selections land among the first 10 in those years.
Calgary, which announced the trade Tuesday, still has seven picks in the first three rounds of the NHL draft Friday and Saturday in Buffalo after giving up the 35th selection to the Devils in the package deal.
The 22-year-old Nemec from Slovakia scored 11 goals, had 15 assists and was minus-11 in 68 games for the Devils this past season.
The six-foot-one, 190-pound player was selected second overall by the Devils in 2022, which made him the highest Slovak defenceman ever drafted.
Nemec, who is a restricted free agent, compiled 16 goals and 33 assists in 155 career games with the Devils.
He had two assists in six games for Slovakia in February’s Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, in which his country finished fourth.
He had an assist in seven games in 2022 in Beijing, where Slovakia took the bronze medal. That same year, Nemec set a record for the most points by an 18-year-old defenceman at the world championship with six in eight games.
The 27-year-old Tsyplakov from Moscow split last season between the New York Islanders and the Devils and totalled a combined two goals and two assists in 49 games.
The undrafted six-foot-three winger has 12 goals and 27 assists in 126 career NHL games. Tsyplakov has one year remaining on a contract with an annual average value of US$2.25 million.
Before his NHL career, Tsyplakov had 63 goals and 58 assists in 327 games with Spartak Moscow.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 23, 2026
The Canadian Press
