Tatar checks off several boxes for Fitzgerald, not only a winger that can slot into his top-6 but also a player with pedigree and ample experience to compliment his young core.
"We're still looking to add, we're still very young up front," he added a week ago. "We're starting to get more experience. That's all I'm trying to do is find guys that have some experience via trade or via free agency."
Since the opening of free agency, and let's be honest, even well before that, Fitzgerald had been on the lookout for another scoring winger to add into the mix. Tatar fits that mold, able to play both left and right-wing giving the Devils coaching staff flexibility in fitting him into a top-six role.
With his 625 games of NHL experience and 377 points, Tatar is a player who can deliver the kind of offense the Devils are looking for at the winger position. Looking at his regular-season numbers, it's of note that he has was one of his team's best players, whichever team he was on, especially at even strength. Now he has an opportunity to come into a Devils team and help do the same, in a position of need.
As he entered the 2020-21 NHL season with Montreal, he had seven consecutive seasons of 19 or more goals. Two of his career-best seasons came over the past three years, with 58 points in 80 games (25G-33A) during the 2018-19 season and a career-best 61 points in 68 games (22G-39A) when the 2019-20 season was halted. Although his 30 points (10G-20A) in 50 games in his last season in Montreal was considered a down year for the Slovakian, the 30 points would have put him tied for third in scoring (Yegor Sharangovich, Jesper Bratt) for New Jersey in 2020-21. Only four players had more goals than Tatar in New Jersey, and if he is able to continue to produce at the level he has, he instantly becomes a fit in the top-6 and will no doubt help boost the young Devils player's stats as well.
Tatar's time in Montreal was spent mostly playing on the top line, often with Brendan Gallagher on the opposing wing and Phillip Danault as his center, and I'll be looking forward to seeing how he may be able to help and produce points with young star centers like Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes. Tatar could very well be a perfect complement to play with either one, should that be a role head coach Lindy Ruff sees as a fit. Immediately, at 30 years old, Tatar becomes the forward with the most experience on this relatively young Devils squad.
