Ramsay: 'It's Easy to Believe In' Nemec | FEATURE 

TAKEAWAYS

• Craig Ramsay has been coaching Simon Nemec since he was a teenager with the Slovak national team
• Ramsay shares his impressions of Nemec's first year in the NHL
• Ramsay talks about how much belief he has in Nemec's abilities at the NHL level
• Ramsay discusses the challenges a player like Nemec will be faced with in a second season in the NHL and how he believes Nemec will be able to handle it

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Craig Ramsay had a bit of free time one evening before opening his World Championship training camp with the 2021 Slovak national team, so he decided to pop over to the arena where the U18 players had a game. Ramsay can't recall the opponent but that might be because he was captivated by the play of three players on the ice.

They were 16 and 17-year-olds Simon Nemec, Juraj Slafkovsky and Samuel Knazko.

"I just fell in love with these three kids, and what they offered which was composure, amazing for young boys, but they had composure on the ice," Ramsay recalled in an exclusive interview from Slovakia.

Enamored so much so, that Ramsay plucked them off the U18 ice, had their gear packed up, and moved to his World Championship training camp locker room. Ramsay got his first real glimpse of the player the New Jersey Devils would soon zero in on themselves, captivated by his talents.

"I moved the three of them over," the head coach said, "and we had a couple of events, and I kept playing them, and they kept getting better, and went to the World Championships and (Nemec) just was never intimidated by anything. He was comfortable. Didn't matter. Seventeen years old, he was comfortable playing against anybody. So we went all the way to the World Championships, and he got power play time, he got even strength time, he played against anybody, and we didn't try to hide him. We put him out there in a really important role all the time."

In 2021 Nemec would, in a few short months, play in both the World Junior Championship and at Worlds, beginning his journey of setting a new IIHF record for most games played by a U20 player.

Ramsay has helped shepherd forward a new generation of Slovak talent that is hitting it big in the NHL.

When Day 1 of the NHL Draft opened in Montreal in 2022, within minutes history was made. The Canadiens selected star forward Slafkovsky, making him the first Slovak player to be drafted first, and not a few moments later when the New Jersey Devils hit the stage, Nemec added to the history-making draft as two Slovaks went 1 and 2 at the draft for the first time in league history.

With Ramsay an integral part in the recent growth of Slovak hockey, this too was a big moment for him.

Unfortunately, he missed it - unintentionally.

"The really embarrassing part was, I was in Florida where I live, and I assumed, for some reason, I thought the draft was the next day," Ramsay recalled. "I was sitting outside watching television, and my son, my oldest boy sent me a note 'Isn't that amazing? Going one and two.' I was like 'What are you talking about? It's tomorrow. They're just projections.' He said, 'No, it's now.' So now I was scrambling around, trying to find it, and obviously, they'd already been picked. But then we had another guy go at 26, Filip Mesar and Adam Sykora went the second night.

"I went in and told my wife, ‘I’m gonna get a beer and walk the neighborhood because I might start crying.' It was such an emotional thing for all of us. You know, we've moved this whole idea forward here in Slovakia, the players bought into it, and this was a result of something completely unexpected, really, but thrilling for everybody in the country."

So, who better would understand how far along the Devils' budding defenseman Nemec has come than Craig Ramsay? He's known him since his mid-teens and most recently, fresh off his rookie NHL season, coached him at the 2024 World Championship in Czechia. Ramsay has had a front-row seat to it all.

"I just felt that as soon as he got his opportunity, he was going to be fine," he said. "That's who he is, he wants to be that guy. So, he's not afraid of it. He's willing to put it on the line in order to try to make things happen."

That self-confidence is exactly what will carry Nemec through his career, Ramsay suggests. Nemec has an intrinsic belief in himself, which is something that the head coach saw on that evening watching the U18s play.

"It's definitely a belief that he should be there," Ramsay said. "He wants to be a leader of a team. When you look down the bench (as a coach), he's got his head up looking at you. I mean, he wants to be out there on the first power play, wants to be out there killing penalties or whatever it happens to be, he believes in what he's doing. And when a coach sees that the player has that kind of ability and confidence, that he believes in himself, then it's easy to believe in him as well."

Nemec had three points (1g-2a) in his first three NHL games and finished the year with 19 points (3g-16a) in 60 games.

Ramsay, 72, has spent his lifetime in hockey including as an NHL head coach and an assistant, and also played over 1,000 games. He has a clear understanding of what it takes for longevity in the National Hockey League.

“To play in the National Hockey League, they have to be good without the puck," Ramsay said. "People always look at scorers or playmakers and the points and so on, but you have to play well without the puck, so the coach feels confident enough to put you on the ice under any situation.

"And so that's what I've seen from him, is that you can play him at any time."

Ramsay also knows that things change in Year 2 and they're not always easy to handle, though he has the fullest of confidence in Nemec. He caught a glimpse of it himself at Worlds in May and began instilling in the soon-to-be NHL sophomore what Year 2 success will be made of.

"The key issue always is playing within the team system, playing as a team player, and then your natural ability will make you better, but you can't push it," he said. "You've got to just play,"

He continued: "And that's a key issue. I try to tell every player with us. I don't need you to save the day. I need you to just go play. And that's really important part of building a team. So Simon has got to go back, realize that he's a second-year guy. He's not a rookie anymore, but he still has to play solidly within the coach's philosophy and whatever system the coach uses.”

Ramsay just completed another season with the Slovak Federation and plans to keep going. He's been an integral part in the rise of Slovak hockey, though humble as he is, he deflects to the players he's coaching instead. The truth is, under Ramsay, these stars have flourished and are becoming household names in North America.

He initially agreed to join the program for two years and help set them in what he called "the right direction." Seven years later, Ramsay is still at the helm. He has played a role of great importance in developing what are now becoming young NHL stars, with more, he says, on the rise.

"I was surprised as could be when Miro Satan called me," Ramsay said. Satan, who played over 1,000 NHL games and is a member of the IIHF Hall of Fame, is now the President of the Slovak Ice Hockey Federation and enlisted Ramsay's help. Ramsay was in a new phase of his life, but once again was drawn right back into the game.

"I had finally not (been working) since I left home at 16 to play hockey," Ramsay said. "I finally had some time off. I kind of enjoyed it. He called me and said, 'Come over to Slovakia.' (I thought) I'll give him a year or maybe two, and we'll just get them pointed in the right direction of what I feel is the world style of hockey now but I fell in love with the people, the country, the players, and I'm really proud of the fact that we've stuck with it."

And New Jersey Devils fans should be too, because perhaps without that phone call to Ramsay and his passion for the game, Slovak hockey may not be where it is now.

And the Devils may have never found the Nemo we now know.