The NHL continues to slander this New Jersey Devils' star

The New Jersey Devils are putting together a pretty nice offseason, capping off their additions this past week with the signing of top-remaining free agent Anthony Mantha. Mantha appears to follow new GM Sunny Mehta’s philosophy to bet on analytics and fit with the current stars, Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt.

 Now that we’re in the doldrums of the offseason, the NHL is looking to add something to talk about on its social media accounts. They do this every year, and every year we “fall for it.” 

They do these rankings, and it gives all of us something to get mad at. This year, they didn’t even get out of July before they were disrespecting the Devils. On Saturday, the NHL put out a post talking about the proposed Swedish team at the NHL All-Star Game. There are a few interesting choices, but the one that stands out the most is one New Jersey Devils star who is missing. 

Jesper Bratt was left off the NHL's prediction for Team Sweden at the 2027 NHL All-Star Game

Leaving Jesper Bratt off the Swedish team is categorically insane. Bratt today is a better player than Adrian Kempe, Mika Zibanejad, and Gabriel Landeskog. Leo Carlsson has never had more points than Bratt, even if he’s very young and the highest-paid player in the NHL.

Seriously keeping Bratt off this roster, especially when considering this would be in a 3v3 format where the Devils have shined in recent years, isn’t a decision backed by logic. 

The article on NHL.com did acknowledge that they left off Bratt and Detroit Red Wings star Lucas Raymond, but they didn't explain why they made the decision they made.

Jesper Bratt has a strange relationship with his national team. During the 2026 Winter Olympics, Bratt was essentially benched, and it was part of why the Swedish team was knocked out before the medal round. It was such a strange coaching decision in a bevy of bad coaching decisions during the tournament. Right after the tournament, Sam Hallam was essentially replaced. He was allowed to coach the IIHF World Championship, but his contract expired after that. 

So, Bratt likely won’t have to worry about Hallam’s strange coaching decisions. However, he apparently has to worry about making Team Sweden entirely. The 3v3 aspect of it does make the team much more competitive. There’s no Devils player who is a lock to make the team (however, the 3v3 situation should make Jack Hughes a lock for Team USA), but Bratt should be as close as anyone. 

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