This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Brett Pesce
New Jersey Devils Defense
A 52.3 per cent chance share in the club's hardest defensive minutes, and 17 points.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-16 | CAR | 69 | 4 | 12 | 16 | -7 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 85 | 4.7 | 18:46 |
| 2016-17 | CAR | 82 | 2 | 18 | 20 | +23 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 109 | 1.8 | 21:12 |
| 2017-18 | CAR | 65 | 3 | 16 | 19 | -6 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 88 | 3.4 | 20:54 |
| 2018-19 | CAR | 73 | 7 | 22 | 29 | +35 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 98 | 7.1 | 20:29 |
| 2019-20 | CAR | 61 | 4 | 14 | 18 | +7 | 27 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 104 | 3.9 | 21:53 |
| 2020-21 | CAR | 55 | 4 | 21 | 25 | +14 | 20 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 89 | 4.5 | 22:48 |
| 2021-22 | CAR | 70 | 7 | 21 | 28 | +5 | 39 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 148 | 4.7 | 21:42 |
| 2022-23 | CAR | 82 | 5 | 25 | 30 | +11 | 43 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 144 | 3.5 | 22:01 |
| 2023-24 | CAR | 70 | 3 | 10 | 13 | +10 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 107 | 2.8 | 20:17 |
| 2024-25 | NJD | 72 | 3 | 14 | 17 | -5 | 29 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 99 | 3.0 | 21:19 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 699 | 42 | 173 | 215 | +87 | 256 | 4 | 1 | 10 | 1071 | 3.9 | 21:07 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
3 goals and 14 assists in 72 games for 17 points, minus-5, on 21:19 a night — the heaviest workload on the blue line.
52.3 per cent at five-on-five, the 74th percentile, over 1,256 minutes, taking the hardest defensive assignment on the club. His on-ice goals were 48-45 against an expected 50.8-46.4.
The Finesse Game
Almost none and none required. 99 shots and 3 goals with 73 per cent from beyond 40 feet, and 14 assists at 21 minutes a night is a low return.
The first pass is quick and safe and he does not stall a breakout. There is no offensive projection and never has been.
The Physical Game
6-3 and 206, and he defends with position and an active stick rather than with force. He boxes out in front of his own net and blocks shots.
29 penalty minutes over 72 games is disciplined. The durability has been mixed — he has cleared 75 games three times in ten seasons.
The Intangibles
A third-round pick, nine seasons in Carolina in a shutdown role, and a free-agent contract here to do the same thing.
At 31 the projection is unchanged: a genuinely good defensive defenceman who plays 21 minutes and produces nothing. On a blue line with two Hughes-style puck-movers, that is exactly the right complement.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,256 minutes
- Expected goals
- 52.3%
- 74th pct
- Shot attempts
- 51.5%
- 69th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 48 for, 45 against. Expected: 50.8 and 46.4.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe two rank him within 16 points of one another. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason.
Both bars are percentiles among the 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 74 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2024-25 · 1256 minutes at five-on-five
- Luke Hughes70%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2024-25
- The club
- NJD took 50.7% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 52.3% — 1.6 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- First pair, 1,256 minutes at five-on-five — 89th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luke Hughes | 52.7% | 51.1% | 46.0% |
| Timo Meier | 52.9% | 51.9% | 54.2% |
| Nico Hischier | 52.2% | 52.3% | 55.3% |
52.7% together, 51.1% for him apart and 46.0% for Hughes apart. Hughes was worse away from him while his own share held — the pairing was doing more for Hughes than for him.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
128 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 3 of them goals. His median goal came from 19 feet. 5% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 73% from beyond forty.