Jesper Bratt Devils
Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports

The Devils’ best player this season takes home the honor, once again.

Week 19 was another strange one for the New Jersey Devils. They obliterated their rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins, who are arguably a top-five team in the league, 6-1 on Thursday.

They followed it up by scoring an impressive five goals against the Chicago Blackhawks, who aren’t much better than they are, but conceding eight for an oddly unfortunate loss.

Goaltending is almost the sole reason why the Devils have been one of the worst teams in the league this season and that was on full display in Friday’s game.

This week was a significant one for multiple Devils. Star defenseman Dougie Hamilton returned on Thursday after missing nearly two months with a broken jaw.

Young forward Yegor Sharangovich played in his 100th career NHL game and even scored a goal.

Defenseman Jonas Siegenthaler, who’s been one of the team’s best players this season as well as one of the best defensive-defensemen in the league, scored his first goal as a Devil against Chicago.

So many Devils played well in Week 19 but, as usual, Jesper Bratt led the way.

(Check out last week’s player of the week here.)

Player of the Week: RW Jesper Bratt 

@ PIT: 2 G, 1 A
@ CHI: 2 G
68.57 CF%
Game Score: 3.67
Defensive impact: -0.03

Bratt made the grandest of impacts upon returning to the lineup, particularly offensively. He was a scoring machine, adding four goals and an assist to his impressive resume.

He immediately set the momentum in his first game back, against the Penguins. He got things rolling for his team by scoring the team’s first two goals, paving the way for his teammates to score another four.

Bratt earned a Game Score of 3.84 against the Penguins, his third-highest of the season.

This was a big week for Bratt, who matched his career-high in goals (16) and then passed it (he’s now at 18). Bratt wasn’t great in his own zone, but did do a better job defensively than most of his teammates.

 

Even given how great he’s been this season, especially offensively, this was somehow probably his best offensive week yet.

Bratt is more and more impressive by the week and has transformed into a true stud who can play as well as any RW in the game.

Honorable Mention: C Jack Hughes 

@ PIT: 3 A
@ CHI: 1 G, 2 A
51.68 CF%
Game Score: 3.54
Defensive impact: -0.37

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Leen Amin
Leen has written about the MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, and international soccer. She is currently the primary NHL writer for ESNY. Leen's work has been featured on Bleacher Report and she was formerly a contributor for FanSided's New York Mets blog, Rising Apple. She is a co-host of the Yankees-Mets Express podcast.

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