Is Jesper Bratt the most underrated player in the NHL?

Photo by Len Redkoles/NHL via Getty Images

When New Jersey Devils superstar Jack Hughes slid shoulder first into the end boards against the Vegas Golden Knights, many Devils fans were holding their breath in fear of what happened. Hughes exited the game as the Devils lost the game 2-0 dropping their season record to 33-23-6 and a lowly 8-10-3 since the start of 2025.

As the team awaited Hughes’s testing results the Devils would face one of the league’s top teams in the Dallas Stars where the Devils entered the third period trailing 3-1; this is when Jesper Bratt and the Devils offense came to life tallying two goals in 3:34 to tie the game at three. The Devils seemed content to go to overtime until a Johnny Kovacevic icing with under twenty seconds left in regulation set up a Dallas offensive faceoff. Off the faceoff, the Devils failed to clear the puck and Stars defenseman Thomas Harley ripped home a dagger with under five seconds to play giving Dallas the two points.

Late Thursday night the news would drop of Jack Hughes undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery; the news was heartbreaking to Devils fans as going into Friday’s trade deadline the season’s outlook looked bleak. New Jersey made minor moves acquiring defenseman Brian Dumoulin, center Cody Glass, winger Daniel Sprong, and defenseman Dennis Cholowski; the Devils fans were not convinced this would help the playoff push after losing a superstar like Hughes. New Jersey played the top team in the Western Conference the Winnipeg Jets and got run out of the building losing 6-1. The Devils were now 33-25-6 and only led the Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Rangers by four points in the Metropolitan Division standings.

Since that day New Jersey has won four out of their last five games and Jesper Bratt has recorded three goals and seven assists for ten points being named the second star in the NHL last week. Bratt hasn’t been paired with the top line with Timo Meier and Nico Hischier, instead, he has been on a line with Erik Haula and the newly acquired Cody Glass on the Devils third line. To show how impressive Bratt’s performance has been, Haula has not recorded a point since November 25th (he has three points over his last four games) and Glass had 15 points in 51 games before being traded to New Jersey (he has five points in his first five games as a Devil). Many fans outside of New Jersey had seen the stats of Bratt with Hughes early in the season where he recorded 68 points in 62 games while playing together, and thought he was the Robin to Hughes being Batman. But after his strong performance in the 4 Nations Faceoff with Sweden and his play without Hughes, Bratt has cemented himself as a star in this league.

The smooth-skating Swede will be at the forefront of the Devils push to the playoffs as they enter the last thirteen games of the season. He currently sits at 80 points in 69 games, while also tying the Devils franchise record for assists in a season with 60 assists tying Scott Stevens’ record set in the 1993-94 season. Last year Bratt set his career high in points with 83 and is on pace to shatter that number with a projected 95 points. But at the rate he’s scoring since Hughes’ injury don’t be surprised if Bratt continues his tear and finishes with over 100 points and leads the Devils to their second playoff appearance in the last seven seasons.