In his current run with the team, Nemeth is okay on the PK and when physical play is called for. That's about it. He's even worse with the puck than I remember. Also, either the system changed or he seems to have completely forgotten the defensive system, because when they're a breakdown in our zone it seems like 75% of the time it's because he was out of position. Some of that is of course created by his poor skating abilities, but it's also his positioning. Offensively of course he's a complete black hole whose only purpose is to pass it to better players or shoot it around the boards.
I get why he's here, but it's a real shame the coaching staff wasn't able to find someone among our various AHL guys (MacDonald/Middleton/Renouf/Gilbert/Burroughs) to fill that role without being such a liability out there. If Grubauer was playing a little worse I think we'd have lost some important games by now directly due to Nemo's mistakes with and without the puck.
It's a shame because I remember in his first year with Detroit I was looking at stats and he seemed to be playing really well for them. I thought when we got him back we'd be getting a more polished defensive product who was aware of his strengths and weaknesses and just played a simple, reliable game - you know, play 10-15 minutes, kill penalties, and otherwise be invisible. Instead, we get a guy who thinks he can throw tape-to-tape cross-ice passes at his own blue line.
You might come away glad your team didn’t sign him.
