Daniel Amoia
Too many recent seasons of underperformance from the New Jersey Devils has led to widespread debate: How much is the core to blame?
Some fans are adamant that the core should be entirely blown up, while others believe they’re at no fault whatsoever. Before hopping into the analysis, it’s important to note that a front office can’t ever reverse such large-scale moves. Thus, decisions of that magnitude require exhaustive evaluation and patience.
Look no further than the New York Mets of Major League Baseball, who willingly parted with three core players after failing to make the playoffs in 2025. Now, their 22-32 record in 2026 ranks 27th out of 30 MLB teams. Fans are even more disgruntled and attendance is spiraling downwards.
At his introductory press conference, Devils’ GM (and Mets fan) Sunny Mehta was asked if he’d consider a Mets-like deconstruction of the core. He rightfully responded, “[On] specific players and personnel, it’s still day two for me. So that’s something I’ll kind of think about, and that’ll be part of the evaluation process in the offseason.”
Regardless of your opinion, it’s undeniable that a lack of depth scoring, inconsistent defense and shoddy goaltending has all played a role in the Devils’ recent failures. To pin it all on the core would be disingenuous.
You could make the argument that out of the Devils’ core players, Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt are the most important. Let’s grade and discuss their 2025-26 performance.
Grading Jack Hughes & Jesper Bratt
Jack Hughes: A
The only thing stopping Hughes from being an A+ overall is that he missed 20+ games for a third consecutive season — 21 to be exact.
However, he deserves the benefit of the doubt for two reasons. First, 18 of those 21 games missed were due to an off-ice freak accident. Secondly, from the eye test, he significantly improved his ability to be effective while avoiding significant contact. He didn’t get tossed around like he had in previous seasons.
Sidney Crosby missed 152 of his first 622 career games to injury (24.4%); Jack has missed 106 of 535 (19.8%). While it’s not apples-to-apples, it does show there’s ample time for the injury narrative to flip.
But when Jack was on the ice, he was truly elite — especially after the Olympics. After scoring the Golden Goal, his 41 points in 25 games was second to only Connor McDavid. He contributed on 49.4% of the Devils’ goals during that span.
With Jack at full strength, the Devils were 26-14-2 (.643 PTS%). With him limited or entirely out, they were 16-23-1 (.413 PTS%). For better or worse, despite all their other problems, the Devils are an elite team with a healthy Jack. It really does feel like 2026-27 will be the first time he can remain fully healthy for 82 games. If he is, expect an MVP-caliber season.
Jesper Bratt: B
Unless something unexpected transpires, Bratt is in it with the Devils for the long haul — his contract runs through 2030-31.
For long stretches of the season, Bratt struggled to finish just as many of his Devils teammates did. He concluded with 22 goals and 71 points nonetheless, which is still a very good season. But for his standards, it was his worst production since the shortened 2021 COVID season.
While there’s certainly some disappointment there, Bratt kept the right mindset through it all, never getting down on himself even during some extremely rough patches.
“Obviously, there’s always challenging parts throughout the year. I mean, even [in 2024-25] with good point production, there [were] still stretches during that season it was tougher mentally when pucks weren’t really going well, and then you just got to continue working. There’s no real shortcuts there. You’ve got to put in the work [and] focus on the things that means a lot to you, that helps you out … If you’re a good player, you always find a way and you make it work. A season usually always evens out somehow.”
– Jesper Bratt
Here’s where it gets interesting:
In the 21 games without Jack, Bratt had just one single goal (!!) and 14 total points (0.67 P/GP). In the 61 games with Jack, Bratt had 21 goals — a 623% increase — and 57 total points (0.93 P/GP).
Extrapolating to a full 82 games, Bratt was a ~4-goal, 55-point player without Jack…and a ~28-goal, 77-point player with him. There’s a reason they’re called peanut butter and jelly.
Per NJ Devils Advocates, with just average finishing for him and his teammates during his shifts, Bratt would have more than 14 additional points. So while the 2025-26 season was a little bit of a bump in the road for Bratt, expect both he and Hughes to be elite offensive forces moving forward.
