The New Jersey Devils have long been linked to Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, and especially so when distant relative Tom Fitzgerald was running the team, but each time the topic comes up, things make less and less sense from New Jersey's perspective.
Tkachuk, 26, scored only 55 points in 72 games for the Senators last year, and had 59 points in 60 games this year while missing 22 regular season games. In the playoffs, the swashbuckling winger's squad was swept by the Carolina Hurricanes, recording zero points as the team captain.
All the reasons some Devils fans and outsiders slight Devils captain Nico Hischier and franchise player Jack Hughes--a perceived lack of toughness, fragility, or not being ready for the playoff spotlight--can also be applied to Tkachuk at different points in his young career thus far.
Now, Tkachuk did have seven points in six playoff games for the Senators last year, but Ottawa was still eliminated in the first round. So, his performance this year gives us a look of what the low floor can truly look like on a team where he is "the guy", next to Tim Stutzle. But the 6-foot-4 winger is more of a Robin than a Batman, and that's okay.
Tkachuk is still a good player, to be clear, but it is obvious that everyone should move on from the notion that the Devils can acquire this player and become some dominant force bound to win the Stanley Cup.
The team already has a boatload of money tied up to forwards Hischier, Hughes, Jesper Bratt, and Timo Meier, and one of those three would have be sent away from New Jersey to fit in Tkachuk's $8.2 million cap hit while maintaining a reasonable amount of roster depth.
Simon Nemec and Arseny Gritsyuk (RFAs) will need new contracts this offseason, too (if the former isn't traded for Tkachuk or another forward), and new GM Sunny Mehta will likely spend some time re-evaluating the Devils' lackluster goaltending group.
Tkachuk is an upgrade on the wings for the Devils, but they have much more pressing matters to tend to before pushing all their chips in for a player who just dropped a goose egg in the playoffs.