Montreal Canadiens: The ins and outs of Tomas Tatar

Versatility and Speed

Tatar was a 2009 second-round draft pick and with the Detroit Red Wings in the period where management had no problem over-ripening prospects in the minors. He spent the better part of three seasons playing for the Grand Rapids Griffins being a player good for around 50 points a year.

After Tatar’s debut season for the 09-10 campaign in which he scored 16 goals and 16 assists in 58 games, the Slovakia-native would put up no less than 23. He got games with the Red Wings here and there but was eventually a full-time member of the roster in 2013. It didn’t start well as he spent the first set of games in the press box, but Tatar eventually got playing time mostly with Tomas Jurco and Riley Sheahan.

The 2014-15 season is most likely what many Habs fans have focused on. Tatar had a career year scoring 29 goals and 27 assists for a total of 56 points. He also had three (3) goals and an assist in Detroit’s first-round exit at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Seeing as he played most of the season with the magician Pavel Datsyuk, the production increase makes a lot of sense. But Datsyuk wasn’t the sole reason for it.

He did assist on four (4) of Tatar’s 18 5-on-5 goals, but it also came down to the number of shots he was getting on net and from where. 211 was the number for him then as well as 421 total shot attempts. The slot was Tatar’s domain that season scoring 59% of his goals from that area. Another thing that helped surely was at the very least Datsyuk’s presence. Having him be the focus out there allowed Tatar to avoid the bigger defenders and get the puck in his wheelhouse but had the shot speed to convert on those chances.