More Memorial Cup embers: Greg Nemisz
The other asset the Flames are watching closely at the Memorial Cup tourney in Brandon this week is Greg Nemisz, the hulking power forward for the Ontario Hockey League champion Windsor Spitfires, a team absolutely oozing with NHL-calibre talent and the hands-down favourites to win the Memorial Cup. (Sorry, Calgary Hitmen, but it’s hard to deny.)
When the Flames drafted Nemisz in the first round of the 2008 entry draft, they had a bit of a project player on their hands. Nemisz was a guy with a nose for the net, but he was skinny and his skating was nowhere near NHL calibre. He’s grown and filled out a bit since they drafted him (He’s now listed at 6’4″, 200 pounds), and while his scoring has held pretty steady in the OHL since he was drafted, he has become a much more complete player.
Nemisz suffered a nasty 45-stitch gash to his thigh in March when his own goalie’s skate cut him in a goalmouth collision, causing him to miss the last month of the OHL season and the first round of the playoffs. It’s taken him a while to get back up to full speed, but watching the Spitfires play in the Memorial Cup round-robin games, it’s pretty clear he’s close to 100 per cent now.
Nemisz sometimes plays on the Spits’ top line with all-world 2010 draft prospect Taylor Hall – which, unfortunately, can make Nemisz look a little slow, because Hall can flat-out fly, he has a way of making everyone around him look like a pylon. But the mere fact Nemisz can more or less keep up with him is a testament to how much the kid’s skating has improved.
Lately, though, Spits’ coach Bob Boughner – another ex-Flame – has been playing Nemisz at centre rather than the wing, and often in a shutdown role against his opponent’s top scoring line. Nemisz is showing solid, responsible, in-your-face play at both ends of the ice, not always the easiest thing to teach a 19-year-old kid with goal-scorer’s hands.
While the Flames are no doubt happy to have a top prospect converting to the team’s perpetually challenged centre position (indeed, the Flames brass encouraged the move), it’s got to be mildly vexing to fans to see yet another prospect developing into a solid-yet-unspectacular checker. Not exactly what Jarome Iginla needs to re-ignite his career for its twilight years.
Still, keep in mind that Windsor is crazy-deep in talent, which sometimes means some guys who would be first-line goal-producers on most other junior teams have been asked to be role players with the Spits.
Case in point is Austin Watson, another high prospect for next month’s draft (ranked no. 8 by the International Scouting Service), who had just 11 goals in 42 games with Windsor this season while seeing limited ice time on many nights with the third or fourth line. Then Windsor traded him to Peterborough, where he instantly became a first-line player, notched 20 points in 10 games, and assured himself a high spot in the draft.
Which is a roundabout way of saying Nemisz might have more offensive upside than he’s been showing in Windsor. He’s proven that when asked to score, he can – he scored 34 goals and 70 points in just 51 games this year, and that was with limited time on the power play. He’s also showing the brains and maturity to do what he’s asked to do, and do it well, to help his team win a championship.
I can’t help but think he sounds a lot like a young Gary Roberts – another Flames first-round pick who was a project when he started out. And we all know how well that worked out.