Change continues for the Utica Comets this week as the New Jersey Devils have sent 20-year-old defenseman Simon Nemec to the AHL club.

The move comes one day after Comets head coach Kevin Dineen was fired and assistant coach Ryan Parent was named interim head coach for the rest of this season. Utica is last in the AHL with an 0-8-1-0 record going into Friday night’s home game against Cleveland.

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Nemec, chosen second overall by the Devils in the 2022 NHL Draft, played 78 regular-season games (14-28-42) with the Comets across parts of two seasons before New Jersey recalled him Dec. 1, 2023. He recorded a pair of assists in his NHL debut and ended up playing 60 games with 19 points (3-16-19). This season he played New Jersey’s first nine games, picked up one assist, and averaged 16:07. However, he had sat out the past six games after Luke Hughes and Brett Pesce entered the New Jersey line-up following injuries. Nemec, whose shot-attempt rate at 5-on-5 play was 49.7 percent as a rookie, had seen that number dip to 41.7 percent this season.

As an 18-year-old, the Devils opted to have Nemec come to North America and spend the 2022-23 season with the Comets. He quickly took on a regular role on the Utica blue line and finished with 12-22-34 in 65 games as Utica qualified for the Calder Cup Playoffs; he skated in six playoff games and went 1-3-4. That same season he also had a chance to play in the IIHF World Junior Championship, where he captained Slovakia and had 1-4-5 in five games.

Nemec comes back to Utica with the team reeling. The Comets recorded their first point of the last Saturday at home against Rochester as top prospect Seamus Casey scored with 1:39 to go in regulation in what was an eventual 3-2 shootout defeat. A night earlier, the Amerks had blown out the Comets on Utica ice with six third-period goals for an 8-1 victory. They are tied with Henderson for last in the AHL with 4.44 goals-against per game while their 1.78 goals per game rank them 31st.

Going into a stretch of three games of four nights, the Comets already find themselves 10 points out of a playoff spot only three-and-a-half weeks into the season and have been outscored 40-16.

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