There are definitely better players you could have instead of Jake DeBrusk, Vince Dunn and Erik Gustafsson

Not according to Evolving Hockey.

Edit: Obviously anyone with a brain would take Bratt over DeBrusk given that there's the cap space for it. However, their model says DeBrusk is the better player this year.

You seem to have missed the purpose of this.

Not gonna argue since you did the leg work but it is really surprising that Tage and Robertson aren't here. Especially with their combined cap hits being lower than Mark Stone.

shouldn't you have done a 23 man roster? The above isn't even possible

Eh, I’m not sure you can say that. Bratt is a marginally better point producer, but Debrusk has been tearing it up this year, solidified himself as a legit top line winger, and has a two way game that bratt doesn’t. Also chips in on the penalty kill etc.

The one thing i think this team shows clearly is that GAR is a somewhat overrated stat, and really doesn’t show the full picture.

Here's 23:

Salary Cap: 82500000

Include Scratches: true
ELCs: 6, no limit
xGAR enabled: false

Andrei Kuzmenko
Gabriel Vilardi
Matty Beniers
Jack Quinn
Martin Necas
Robert Thomas
Zach Hyman
Jake Debrusk
Eetu Luostarinen
Joe Pavelski
Roope Hintz
Jared McCann
Nic Dowd
Jack Hughes

Erik Gustafsson
Erik Karlsson
Rasmus Dahlin
Jonas Siegenthaler
Filip Hronek
Josh Morrissey
Vince Dunn

Stuart Skinner
Ilya Sorokin

They're both on if you go by xGAR

I mean fair enough on Bratt and DeBrusk, though there are other examples I could've used. Bratt actually has insane defensive metrics though.

On the second point, I somewhat agree. No stat is complete without context.

But we should settle down on the metrics. Contrary to the belief of some, if you’re drawing conclusions from these statistics, they can lie to you. It’s not the end all be all.

I am aware that they are not the end all be all. I literally just said context is needed. I think you should take my word as someone who has seen every game Bratt has played this year that he's a complete two way player.

Well, I’m not going to. Because i have no reason to like or dislike the devils, and I’ve watched him plenty. It’s not like he’s a liability, but a 200-foot game wouldn’t be in my top ten compliments for Bratt.

Vince Dunn has been elite this year.

I'd like to see that roster!

I posted it earlier, check my profile