Ranking the Rankings: Did ESPN Get New Jersey Devils Top 100 Rankings Right?
The New Jersey Devils were well represented in the ESPN Top 100 players ranking for 2023-24. Did the writers get the rankings right?
The New Jersey Devils and Tampa Bay Lightning were the two teams with six players in ESPN’s Top 100 rankings last week. That shows how great it’s been for the Devils over the past 12 months. After years of rebuilding, the Devils are named in the same breath as a team that has been in the Stanley Cup Final and won two in three of the last four years.
In years past, it seemed like the Devils weren’t getting their due. Jack Hughes was deemed a fine asset who would be decent, but he was never talked about like an upper-echelon star except within the analytics community. It’s hard to get noticed when on a perennial loser. Now, he’s in the top five of this list.
We wanted to assess where all the Devils landed and if they deserved better or if they were a bit overrated. First, let’s talk about the players who missed the list entirely.
Dawson Mercer
Might be a little early for him. He has streaks where he is the best player on the ice, but that doesn’t always translate in the national media. He should be on these lists in no time.
John Marino
Despite his early season struggles, John Marino was great last year. We expect him to get back to his greatness, but defensive defensemen have trouble tracking on these lists.
Luke Hughes
We’d say we didn’t expect the rookie to make the list, but even Adam Fantilli and Logan Cooley make the honorable mention. Luke Hughes is definitely in that Calder Trophy race, so we thought he’d be in there with his competition.
Jack Hughes
ESPN Ranking: 4
Too High, Too Low, Just Right?: Just Right
We understand that Jack Hughes being the fourth-ranked player on this list might feel too high to some, but the early season results are proving otherwise. He has 10 points, which is third in the NHL. The only two players ahead of him (Alex DeBrincat and Dylan Larkin) have both played two more games than Hughes.
Jack Hughes has been a phenom this season. He’s scored goals when his team needed it most, including two crucial goals against the wagon that is the Detroit Red Wings. He’s coming off an overtime goal to beat the New York Islanders. When the Devils need Hughes, he shows up big.
Some are complaining because of who Hughes has been ranked ahead of this season. He’s ahead of Leon Draisaitl, Auston Matthews, Nikita Kucherov, and David Pastrnak. However, when you get into this stratosphere of players, there will be nuance in the rankings. Right now, only one thing is clear about hockey rankings: Connor McDavid is at the top. Beyond that, it’s anybody’s ball game.
Hughes is a superstar, and he’s already proved it early in the season. The Devils know for a fact they can rely on him in the biggest moments. We expect that to come up again at the end of the season.
Nico Hischier
ESPN Ranking: 31
Too High, Too Low, Just Right?: Just Right
Nico Hischier is a very hard player to rank in the grand scheme of the NHL. He’s very good. He’s a former number-one overall pick. Last season, he was a Selke nominee. With Patrice Bergeron out of the league, the door is open for Hischier to win the award that he came in second for last season. It makes sense to have such a good two-way player ranked this high.
This section of the ranking is very interesting. Some of the names right ahead of Hischier include Igor Shesterkin, Ilya Sorokin, and Miro Heiskanen. That feels right. Behind Hischier are some bigger names who are holding onto their prime, like Steven Stamkos, Artemi Panarin, and Alex Ovechkin. For this year only, would you rather have Hischier or the three players just mentioned? It’s definitely a debate at this point in their careers.
Hischier is having a rough start to the season, but expect him to make a comeback now that he avoided an injury. He’s too talented to keep playing like he has. Lindy Ruff shuffled the lines, and Timo Meier found his groove. Hischier will be right behind him.
It looks like Ruff will go with the Hischier, Jesper Bratt, and Ondrej Palat combination again. We’ll see if Bratt’s big start can rub off on the captain. Despite Hischier’s start, 31 still feels right. We have all the faith that he will turn it around.
Dougie Hamilton
ESPN Ranking: 49
Too High, Too Low, Just Right?: Too Low
Going into this ranking, we were sure this was be ranked “too high,” but then we saw who ESPN ranked ahead of Dougie Hamilton. First, can we talk about Seth Jones? While he isn’t ahead of Dougie Hamilton, he was ranked right by him at 52. Jones wasn’t the complete abomination he was two seasons ago, but he isn’t good. He’s still the worst contract in hockey.
The defensemen ahead of Hamilton include Jakob Chychrun (that seems like they ranked him based on his profile and not his play), Hampus Lindholm (good defenseman, but highly overrating his play on the best team in hockey), and Erik Karlsson (he won the Norris, so we get it, but he doesn’t play a lick of defense). We wouldn’t trade Hamilton straight up for any of those players, and you couldn’t pay us to take on Jones.
Hamilton was really good last season, and he looks like he’s even better to start this season. He has the league lead in goals for a defenseman (tied with Jaccob Slavin at three, but the Canes defenseman has two more games). Hamilton has been a catalyst in allowing the Devils to have two equal power play units, which has led them to nine power-play goals in four games. They are averaging more than two PP goals per game when they only averaged closed to one every two games last season.
Hamilton is well worth the $9 million Tom Fitzgerald gave him. He should be ranked a little higher on this list.
Timo Meier
ESPN Ranking: 58
Too High, Too Low, Just Right?: Too High
Timo Meier is a really good player, and the Devils are lucky to have him on the roster. However, there are a ton of great players on this team, and he deserves probably a slightly lower ranking. He is getting a lot of publicity for his 40+ goal season and his close-to-$9 million per season contract. Quinn Hughes, Brent Burns, and Elias Lindholm are below Meier, and one could argue they should all be ahead of him.
Maybe this is recency bias since Meier had possibly the worst start on the team, but even if Meier stays a top-75 player, the Devils will be fine. He’s still just 27 years old (his birthday was earlier this month). His contract is good for eight more years. He can grow with this Devils team.
Meier is coming off his two best scoring seasons, putting up 40 and 35 goals, respectively. He’s started off the season with 0 goals through four games. It’s early, so it’s not the end of the world that Meier is struggling. He had the quintessential assist on Jack Hughes’ overtime goal on Friday. If he can continue to impact the game outside of scoring, the goals will come eventually.
Still, we could see Meier get closer to 70, especially considering where Bratt ended up on this list.
Tyler Toffoli
ESPN Ranking: 65
Too High, Too Low, Just Right?: Too High
Let’s start with some positives. We loved the Tyler Toffoli trade when it went down. He is such a good fit for this team. He has enough speed to keep up with the great centers on this team. His scoring prowess is hard to find on the open market. The Devils were able to get Toffoli because of the tumultuous situation left by Darryl Sutter in Calgary. That’s also why the Devils got him for just Yegor Sharangovich and a third-round pick.
Toffoli got his first goal with the Devils on Friday night. He clearly felt the monkey come off his back, and now he could be a scoring machine. That’s what this ranking is suggesting. Toffoli is coming off a 34-goal season. That’s also why Toffoli is here.
However, Toffoli hasn’t been entirely consistent in his career. Despite being in his 12th season in the NHL, he only has two 30-goal seasons. His last 30-goal season prior to last season was way back in 2015-16.
Toffoli has been good in his stops in Montreal and Calgary. He hit his stride after a lot of hype in Los Angeles. He is a good player, but the writers have to look at his past when looking at his rankings. Toffoli is ranked higher than Alex DeBrincat, who could be jumping in the top 20 if we did the rankings today.
Jesper Bratt
ESPN Ranking: 81
Too High, Too Low, Just Right?: Too Low
This is the one that feels egregious. We’d understand this ranking if it was last year. Bratt was coming off his first 70+ point season. Wildly, Bratt was unranked last season on this list. Then, he did it again on the scoresheet. Now he’s ranked, but it’s wildly low. We expected Bratt to be closer to where Meier is.
Bratt is ranked in the same tier as Brock Boeser, who nobody was willing to trade for last season, Patrik Laine, who seems to get worse with age, and Nazem Kadri, who didn’t hit the heights the Flames were hoping for when they signed him. Bratt is slightly higher than these players, despite Boeser having a good start to the season.
Would anyone trade Bratt this season for Boeser, Kadri, or Laine? Maybe someone would consider Laine, but Bratt seems to be in the next tier up from these players. He’s been good to start the year, putting up two points per game. While it is too early to claim victory on Bratt’s success, it’s a big deal that he’s playing so well.
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Bratt’s age tells us he’s only going to get better. At 25 years old, he’s starting to hit that sweet spot where his experience is hitting at the same time as his peak physical condition. Bratt’s instincts are close to as good as Hughes’. He can play on any line and succeed. Can Bratt get to 100 points? Maybe he would get more love on this list then.