Brett Pesce Has Been Quietly Excellent So Far

I have to admit that I’ve been overlooking Brett Pesce this season, and it feels to me like a lot of other New Jersey Devils fans have been doing the same. It does make sense in a way, as there have been no shortage of storylines surrounding the Devils that have taken up most of the oxygen. The slow start, the lack of scoring, the incredible underlying numbers without the incredible results to go along with them, the turnaround, and of course, the massive trade for Connor Hellebuyck. And that’s just the view from 10,000 feet, as we haven’t even gotten into stories involving individual players. Even among his fellow defensemen, Pesce has been shouted over by Luke Hughes’ (potential) long-awaited breakout, Dougie Hamilton’s return to form as a truly elite offensive defenseman, and Brenden Dillon’s string of healthy scratches. Heck, I’ve even written about Declan Chisholm before I’ve written about Pesce this season.

But I’m righting that wrong today. On the one hand it feels like I should be writing about Hellebuyck, as his acquisition is by far the most relevant and impactful storyline around the club right now. But on the other hand, I feel as though we will all talk about him more than enough in the coming weeks. So for now, I want to focus on what I believe to be an unsung hero of this team so far. It is of course quite early, but 11 games into 2026-27, Pesce has been outstanding. And he deserves some recognition.

(Please note that some stat rankings and percentages referenced below might be slightly off, as this was written Sunday night before some players’ statistics were properly logged into league datasets. That being said, the numbers should largely be the same.)

Pesce The Warrior

I am a big believer in analytics, and we will get to those shortly. But first, I wanted to touch on a few traditional stats and anecdotal references that I feel shows what has made Pesce so valuable to this team. We can’t really look at points as a measure of Pesce’s value, because even though he did score his first goal of the season over the weekend, he is not a guy who is going to post huge point totals. Don’t get me wrong, four points in 11 games isn’t bad. It’s just not the best traditional measure of his value.

Instead, we’ll go with a few numbers that show just how much of a warrior Pesce is. Since he’s been a Devil, Pesce has been a shot-blocking machine. Honestly some Devils fans might tell you they want Pesce to cool it with the blocked shots considering how often he has gotten injured over the years doing so. But that’s just Pesce mindset, and it’s hard to deprogram a player like that from throwing his body into harm’s way all the time. And the effort and sacrifice is much appreciated. Through 2026-27, we are once again seeing Pesce get up to his old tricks in this department, as he enters today tied for 27th in the entire league with 20 blocked shots. Post Hockey backs this up, awarding Pesce with an aptly named “Beanbag” player badge. The criteria for attaining this badge is being “top-ten percent in the share of the shot attempts against him that he blocks himself, at 5v5 and on the penalty kill. Earned this season: In the top tenth of defensemen at this”. We all knew Pesce was a shot-blocking machine, but it helps to have tangible numbers to back it up.

Another solid indicator of how indispensable Pesce has been this season is his time on ice. Luke Hughes leads the Devils with an average time on ice of 24:05 per game. But Pesce is right behind him in second, logging a whopping 21:16 ATOI. And not only that, but Pesce also logs an average of 1:52 per game on the penalty kill, per Natural Stat Trick. That places him third on the team behind Jonas Siegenthaler at 2:01, and, remarkably, Hamilton at 2:04. Yes, the one and only Dougie Hamilton leads the Devils in ATOI on the penalty kill so far. Granted, he is effectively tied with Sigenthaler and isn’t that far ahead of Pesce. But it is still hilarious to see Hamilton with the most shorthanded ice time per game on the team.

Anyway, Pesce is one of Sheldon Keefe’s most trusted penalty killers, in addition to being one of the most trusted defensemen in general judging by ice time. Pesce logs huge minutes, including a lot of them in tough situations. And so far, he has risen to the occasion.

And while these aren’t actual statistics, anecdotally I have to say that I’ve been impressed just watching Pesce play this season. He is a calming presence on the ice, both keeping his teammates organized and settled, and keeping the opposition to the outside or pinned against the wall or boxed out of the crease. When he is on the ice, I never get the sense that Pesce is about to make things go horribly wrong. There are subtle passes that keep the playing moving forward. There are smart decisions when it comes to clearing the zone, either through a pass, a hard-around, or a flip into neutral ice. There are well-timed keeps at the offensive blue line and well-timed retreats when the situation calls for defensive awareness. Pesce does all the little things right, which is obvious watching him for extended periods of time.

And that doesn’t even take into account the penalty kill. Remember last season when New Jersey was shutting teams down effectively on the kill, then Pesce got hurt, and the PK instantly became bottom-of-the-league bad for a while? You could argue that wasn’t entirely because Pesce went down due to injury, but the timing of it all sure makes it seem like Pesce was the glue that held the penalty kill together. New Jersey has had it’s PK struggles early this season, but things have been stabilizing for a few games now. And Pesce has been a big part of that.

The Sparkling Advanced Stats

And if the traditional stats or the eye test aren’t enough for you, Pesce also has an impeccable advances stats portfolio thus far.

We’ll start with Natural Stat Trick. Here are Pesce’s big 5-on-5 numbers through 11 games We will also include his ranking among all 178 defensemen in the league who have played at least 100 5-on-5 minutes this season:

Those are simply extraordinary numbers. There are actually some Devils defensemen who are ahead of him in a few of these statistics, which just goes to show how dominant the team as a whole has been so far. But even though he isn’t first on the team in any of these categories except CF%, I don’t believe that makes him any less valuable. In fact, given the huge minutes that Pesce logs on a nightly basis, I would say that these numbers are more impressive than, for example, Declan Chisholm edging him out in a few of these categories in much more sheltered deployment. Pesce is largely taking on the other teams’ best players every night and winning the territorial battle handily.

Elsewhere, Hockey Stat Cards has been very, very impressed with Pesce through 11 contests. According to HST, Pesce has a +0.6 Offensive Net Rating, placing him in the 77th percentile league-wide. That is strong enough, but it pales in comparison to his defensive game. Hockey Stat Cards currently has Pesce tabbed at a +1.4 Defensive Net Rating, good for an elite 96th percentile rating. His overall Net Rating of +2.1 places him in the 89th percentile in the NHL. In other words, Hockey Stat Cards thinks that only 11% of defensemen in the entire league have been better than Pesce so far. That is some lofty praise for the veteran blueliner.

(side note: Yes, 0.6 plus 1.4 equals 2.0, not 2.1. But I believe Pesce gets an additional 0.1 due to the rounding of the Offensive and Defensive Net Rating at a smaller level.)

Returning to Post Hockey, there’s actually another badge that Pesce qualifies for this season, and it’s an important one: The Wall badge. The description of Pesce’s Wall badge reads, “Holds the blue line: a top-ten-percent defenseman at the share of entry attempts against him that he broke up, from All Three Zones tracking. Earned this season: In the top tenth of defensemen at this. Gold ring: 1st among them. Three stars: held for two seasons before this one”. So not only is Pesce elite at breaking up potential zone entries by opposing teams, but according to CJ Turtoro’s model, he is one-of-one in this category. No defenseman in the league is as good at stopping offensive zone possessions as Brett Pesce. And apparently he’s been in the top 10% of the league at this for the two years prior to this one as well. It’s hard to describe just how valuable a skill that is, even if it’s not easily measured by traditional means.

And sticking with Post Hockey for a second, Pesce also grades out extremely well by their model. According to the Post Hockey numbers, Pesce is currently rocking a 5-on-5 xG% of 61.4%. Just like with Natural Stat Trick, that is 12th among the 178 defensemen league-wide who have accumulated at least 100 5-on-5 minutes this season. That is also second on the Devils among defensemen behind only Hamilton’s 62.2%. And as far as Post Hockey’s version of Net Rating, Pesce is currently at +1.7 there, good for 27th in the league and behind only Hamilton again (+2.0) on the Devils blue line.

Finally, even though it doesn’t isolate Pesce specifically, I wanted to take a look at one more model: Moneypuck. According to their data, among defense pairs with at least 100 5-on-5 minutes together this season, the Pesce-Hughes pairing ranks 10th in xG% with a 59.9% mark. This is behind the Siegenthaler-Hamilton pairing’s 63.4%, but again, considering Pesce logs more minutes per game on average than either Siegenthaler or Hamilton, and he’s generally taking on tougher competition on a nightly basis, I think their numbers are roughly even at worst and a little more impressive at best.

No matter what model you look at, Pesce has been a play-driving menace in 2026-27.

Final Thoughts And Your Take

As mentioned at the top, Pesce’s strong work this season has flown a bit under the radar in my opinion. I was certainly part of the group that was overlooking him, and that’s on me. But no more. Pesce deserves all of our attention and recognition for what he’s done this season. As we talk about Luke Hughes and how he is blossoming in front of our very eyes, I think it’s important to recognize Pesce’s role in that. Pesce has been the perfect partner for the young Hughes, helping nurture his game and allowing Hughes to put together all of his prodigious tools into a fully-formed elite defenseman. Though to be fair, Hughes isn’t quite there yet. But he’s close, and in my opinion, Pesce has a lot to do with that.

Pesce does the thankless, hazardous jobs that not many other players want to do. He blocks shots, he kills penalties, he covers for his teammates’ mistakes, and he is overall a steady presence on the Devils’ blueline. It can be easy to miss what makes him effective, but the traditional stats, the eye test, and the underlying metrics all point to the same conclusion: Brett Pesce has been quietly excellent for the Devils this season. And if he can manage to stay healthy this year, I think we’re looking at a truly excellent season to come for the veteran blueliner.

What do you think of Pesce’s season so far? Are you as impressed as I’ve been? Do you feel he has been overlooked, or do you think he has been properly recognized? What under the radar aspects of Pesce’s game have impressed you the most? As always, thanks for reading!