On Tatar, Palat, and showing up in the playoffs

CJ Turtoro dives into why – for different reasons – Tomas Tatar and Ondrej Palat need to make noise in the postseason.

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By CJ Turtoro (@CJTDevil)

When the Devils added Timo Meier, he joined a team whose previous top six scorers were Jack Hughes. Nico Hischier, Jesper Bratt, Dawson Mercer, Tomas Tatar, and Ondrej Palat.

Of that group, there are four players under 25 and they (as well as Timo) will be forming the future of this team’s core for the foreseeable future. Because of that, they have been where the majority of the focus has been placed for this young team – deservedly so! But in all their attention, the next two names on that list have not had much spotlight at all. 

Whereas the top four were all under 25, the next two names are both over 30. One of them has been among the most impactful 5v5 players in the NHL; the other is the most overpaid skater on the team not named Miles Wood. One of them is a postseason icon – famous for picking up his game when it matters most. The other is a postseason goat (the bad kind) – infamous for disappearing in the biggest moments.

The interesting part is that the second pair of descriptions doesn’t match up to the first pair you’d expect. This is a key moment in the careers of Tomas Tatar and Ondrej Palat – for the exact opposite reasons.

Tomas Tatar needs to prove his regular season production is legit…and Ondrej Palat needs to prove it’s not.

Ondřej Palát

By all accounts, the Devils were pretty aggressive suitors of offensive reinforcements to complement the team’s young core in the off-season – an initiative that continued into the year as the Devils acquired the biggest asset available at the trade deadline in Timo Meier.

While big fish like Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk eluded GM Tom Fitzgerald, he was able to add something he felt was the most pressing need this team had: veteran leadership with a track record of postseason success.

For those unfamiliar, Palat has acquired a bit of a reputation for producing in the clutch during Tampa’s recent dynastic run. Since entering the season a decade ago, no player in the NHL has more game-winning goals than Palat’s twelve. Of particular interest to Devils fans might be the fact that he scored the GWG in the final two minutes of the 3rd period not once, but twice in last year’s series win against the Rangers. 

When the Devils gave Palat a $6M contract, it was generally agreed to be an overpay in terms of actual on-ice value; but his veteran presence and reliability in the postseason was worth a million or so extra dollars we had to spend to get him. 

As it stands there are 14 Devils forwards who have played at least 300 minutes this season. Ondrej ranks 11th in GAR rate, 9th in xGAR rate, and 9th in Game Score rate. The hope was that he’d be a regular top-6 producer. The expectation was that he’d slot in the middle six. The reality so far is that he’s been a bottom-6 guy for this team.

He’s gotten by without much negative attention largely because the reason he was acquired in the first place was not to produce in the regular season, it was to be a stabilizing presence in the biggest moments for the young team. But clutch game-winning goals are extremely rare events and it seems unfair to judge Palat solely on his ability to repeat one of the flukiest events in hockey.

Imagine it’s an overtime in Game 7 and this New Jersey Devils team with four all-star caliber forwards are all looking to a 32-year-old 3rd liner to net the winner. That’s ridiculous; but it feels like that’s kinda what people expect from Palat. 

In reality, the Devils just need Palat to be a reliable 200-ft winger that can anchor a 3rd line to out-chance the opponents bottom-6. But, for his sake, I really hope he can justify his AAV and pot one goal that we’ll replay for years.

Tomáš Tatar