On Tomas Tatar's playoff performance and future with the Devils

After another disappointing playoff showing from Tatar, the Devils may elect to go in a different direction.

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If you’d have asked me a month ago, I’d have said it is likely Tomas Tatar will be back with the New Jersey Devils next season.

At that point he was just putting the finishing touches on one of the better 5v5 seasons from anybody in the league.

Of 301 forwards to log at least 700 minutes of ice, Tatar ranked 3rd in expected goal share – just below Patrice Bergeron – and finished with an absurd +33 goal differential.

It didn’t matter if Tatar was centered by Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes, or even Erik Haula. The Devils constantly dominated in Tatar’s minutes.

He wasn’t just a bystander offensively, contributing 35 points at 5v5. That’s more than Bergeron, Alex DeBrincat, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Sam Reinhart and Matt Boldy, to name but a few. Any way you look at it, Tatar was terrific.

Unfortunately, he followed up an extremely strong regular season with perhaps the worst playoffs possible.

His play-driving ability seemingly disappeared, with Tatar posting a 48 xGF% over 12 games. The Devils were out-scored 9-2 in his minutes, good for the worst goal share among any forward on the team to play regularly.

The offense completely dried up as well. He produced only one point and averaged 4.58 primary shot contributions (5v5), well below his season average of 5.56.

Tatar also generated only five high-danger chances, less than one every two games. He averaged exactly one per contest during the regular season.