New Jersey Devils: Jesper Bratt Made Major Strides This Season
By Nick Villano
New Jersey Devils young forward Jesper Bratt‘s season may be over. After falling off a cliff last season, it was nice to see him stay consistent this season.
Last season, Jesper Bratt was the surprise of the New Jersey Devils franchise when he rocketed past more seasoned players in the preseason, and forced himself on the Opening Night roster. He then went completely off in that first month. He scored 10 points, including four goals, in the first month ever in the NHL.
He kept the momentum for the first half of the season, but fell off a mountain in the second half. He scored 31 points over the first four months of his career. He then scored four points total for the rest of the season. He was so bad, he was on the ice for just one game in the Devils first-round exit against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
This season, things started off terribly. While getting ready to play probably his only NHL game he’ll ever play in his native Sweden, a puck came off the crossbar and hit him in the face. That broke his jaw, forcing him not only to miss the Sweden game, but also the first five weeks of the season.
He came back and found a nice spot in the middle six. He scored seven points in his first month back, and it looked like the Jesper Bratt of the first few months of his career was close to being back. This is a 20-year-old player after all.
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He’s had trouble lighting the lamp this season, but he’s been a passing machine. He hit 25 assists in just over 50 games. This is very good for a second-line winger who’s center was having serious scoring issues.
After a two-point performance against the Philadelphia Flyers to start the month, it marked 13 points in 12 games for Bratt. His injury is really unfortunate, because he was finally finding his stride. He looked like the player in his first month that forced the Devils hand by leaving him on the roster. Bratt was rolling, even as the contributors around him continued to go down.
We need to appreciate Bratt’s season. He’s given the Devils a very good option going into next season. With Bratt playing as well as he has, it gives the Devils the option to put Kyle Palmieri on the second line, which might be a better fit. If Pavel Zacha goes into next season as the second-line center, he might do better with a player that sits in his spot and rockets it home.
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That’s what Bratt’s season means. It makes him capable of playing on the top line with an MVP-caliber left wing in Taylor Hall and a future Selke candidate in Nico Hischier. This could be the top line for years to come.
Things are so bad for Devils fans right now, but let’s take a second to appreciate that we have a former 6th-round pick that is now a capable top-line player. That’s mastery by GM Ray Shero. There might have been questions surrounding Bratt’s status going into the NHL Draft, but Shero signed him after one season abroad. Now, he’s the present and the future along with a few other notable players.