Brett Pesce is giving the Devils exactly the kind of update they were hoping to hear.
The New Jersey right-shot defenseman is taking part in the Shoulder Check Showcase, the annual event built to raise mental health awareness and featuring more than 20 NHL players. Pesce is the lone Devils player involved, and when he spoke with reporters Thursday afternoon, he said he was "100 percent healthy" and that his injuries did not hold him back from his summer regimen.
For New Jersey, that’s a major development. Pesce’s 2025-26 season was wrecked by injuries and uneven play.
He appeared in just 37 games, sat out from late October through mid-December because of an upper-body injury, then returned for 28 more games before a lower-body injury ended his season in March. Even when he was on the ice, he wasn’t close to his best.
HockeyStats had his expected goal share at 49.6%, the worst mark of his 11-year career.
That’s a sharp drop from what the Devils got in his first season with the team in 2024-25, when he posted a 53.7% xGF%. That year, he was the steadying force beside Luke Hughes. This past season, there were still flashes of that same effect, but the rhythm and impact just weren’t the same.
Pesce’s issues were part of a larger problem on the blue line. Luke Hughes missed 14 games, and Johnathan Kovacevic was out for most of the season while recovering from a torn ACL. Those absences made a strong case that New Jersey’s defensive injuries were the biggest reason the season went sideways.
Still, Pesce may have been the most important piece of that puzzle. If the Devils are going to get where they want to go, they need him on the ice.
They need his two-way game, and they need the calming presence he brings next to Hughes, New Jersey’s highest-ceiling defender. Sunny Mehta has helped improve the depth, but the right side still depends on health.
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Dawson Mercer sits right in the middle of it. The 24-year-old forward has shown enough to matter, but his inconsistency has kept him from locking down a clearer place in the lineup, and the safest fit may be a third-line role. If the Devils cannot find the right usage for him, the possibility of exploring a trade has to at least be part of the conversation, especially with injuries always able to shift the picture quickly. [Read more 🡒]
Tomas Nosek Leaves Devils After Sudden Career Turnaround
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Noseks path has taken a notable late-career turn, capped by a Stanley Cup with Florida in 2025, and this return to Pardubice appears to mark the next stage of that journey. For New Jersey, it serves as another reminder of how quickly the league can change course for a depth player whose value often shows up in the kind of steady, adaptable work that tends to age well until the final chapters arrive. [Read more 🡒]