After spending two years together in New Jersey, forwards Miles Wood and Tomas Tatar made their preseason debuts with the Avalanche on Sunday, playing together on a line centered by fellow newcomer Ross Colton.
Tatar was a late addition to Colorado’s roster. He signed a bargain one-year deal worth $1.5 million just two weeks ago. Coming off his seventh career 20-goal season, Tatar felt it was important to find an opportunity that could both help him produce and achieve his goal of winning a Stanley Cup.
“You want to make the right choice and it took a while at the end. But I think it was worth waiting,” Tatar told me. “I think I made the right decision. Very excited to join the Colorado organization and play with these kinds of players.
“I can sense the winning mentality here.”
Tatar is coming off a two-year stint in New Jersey, where he enjoyed great offensive production in the regular season. Colorado is his fifth stop after spending the first part of his career with the team that drafted him, the Detroit Red Wings. His teammate Wood, on the other hand, has only known one organization to date. Wood was drafted No. 100 overall in 2013 by the Devils and played 402 games with them before signing a six-year contract with Colorado on July 1.
He and Tatar spent some time together over the past couple of seasons. But adjusting to Colton’s game will be the focus during preseason.
“I played against him a lot the last two years or so,” Wood said of Colton, who wears No. 20. “But I don’t know too much about him. I do know he’s a smart player. He likes to play quick, he likes to get to the net and hopefully, we can complement each other.”
Tatar and Colton both wore the alternate captains ‘A’ on their sweaters against Minnesota in the preseason opener. Neither of them or Wood recorded a point. The Avalanche lost 4-3.
Listen to “Preseason Begins + Kristy Flannery on Tatar, Wood and the NJ Devils” on Spreaker.