Montreal Canadiens: The ins and outs of Tomas Tatar

Key Numbers

What’s interesting about Tatar’s production over the years is how much of it came at 5-on-5. The highest clip he ever finished at was the 19 goals he put up in 2014-15 and 18 last year. That doesn’t mean Tatar is useless on the power play. He’s generally good for at least five (5) tallies on the man-advantage and had nine (9) this past season.

Where he plays on the power play will be interesting. Tatar is pretty versatile and can play either side. He can also finish on a one-timer pass which Max Domi or Jonathan Drouin can easily have fun with. Going back to Ryan Stimson’s Player Comparison Table, Tatar has been in the top percentile (89th) among NHL players in one-timer shots per 60.

But with the puck on his stick, Tatar isn’t afraid to move over to centre ice and fire a shot from the slot if there’s an opportunity to do so.

Playing with Phillip Danault makes the most sense at even strength, but it’s more than being the easy fill-in spot. Danault is an underrated playmaker and likes to make a good deal of short passes to advance the puck forward. Tatar isn’t bad at making those small give-and-go plays, especially in the offensive zone.

An example of this, unfortunately, came against the Habs when he was still in Detroit.

Tatar is on the left side of the umbrella and upon receiving the puck, waits and passes it to Sheahan instead of shooting it as Jeff Petry was in the lane. He then ensures that he’s available to receive the pass and rips a shot over Antti Niemi‘s glove for the goal (2:43 of the video).