Devils sign Tomas Tatar to one-year, $1.8M contract

A familiar face is coming back to the Garden State.

On Tuesday, New Jersey Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald announced the team has signed forward Tomas Tatar to a one-year contract. The deal will carry a $1.8 million cap through the 2024-25 season.

It is a small pay raise for Tatar, as his one-year deal that he was on for the 2023-24 campaign had a $1.5 million cap hit.

This will be Tatar’s second stint with the franchise. The Slovakian native played two seasons with the Devils from 2021 to 2023, scoring 35 goals and 43 assists in 158 games. He also scored a goal in 12 playoff games as New Jersey made a run to the second round in 2023.

Tatar signed a one-year deal with the Colorado Avalanche last September, but was traded to the Seattle Kraken for a draft pick in December. He would play a total of 70 games, scoring just nine goals and 15 assists, with his 24 points marking the lowest single-season total since becoming a full-time NHLer during the 2013-14 season. The 34-year-old had scored at least 30 points in each of the last 11 seasons.

Over his career, Tatar has made stops with the Detroit Red Wings–the team that took him in the second round of the 2009 NHL Draft, the Vegas Golden Knights and the Montreal Canadiens. In 853 NHL games, he has scored 220 goals and 259 assists, including 13 points in 52 playoff games.

Tatar has also represented his country on multiple occasions. He has played for Slovakia at the IIHF Men’s World Championship seven times, including captaining the team during the 2024 edition of the tournament. He also played for the Slovaks at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, along with being a runner-up with Team Europe in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

With the signing, the Devils have 41 players on a standard player contract for the 2024-25 campaign. According to CapFriendly, New Jersey has less than $5 million in projected cap space.