Montreal Canadiens: The ins and outs of Tomas Tatar

The Montreal Canadiens have two more new faces within the organization and one of them is Tomas Tatar after trading Max Pacioretty to Vegas.

The theme of this offseason for the Montreal Canadiens is brought to you by the letter “T.” T for turnover. The 2018 NHL Draft, Free Agent Frenzy, and a number of deals have the Habs looking like a different team on certain levels. The latest entries into the fold are Tomas Tatar and Nick Suzuki who are making their way to Montreal while former captain Max Pacioretty heads in the other direction.

It wasn’t a clean deal, however. The Montreal Canadiens retained 10% of Pacioretty’s salary leaving a remaining $450,000 on the books until the rest of the season. Additionally, the Vegas Golden Knights took back some of Tatar’s salary (9.434% of it) leaving a $500,000 hole for another three years. But the Habs are still looking good cap-wise as they have $7,062,025 left to work with (and hopefully mortgage) for the upcoming months). 

Another thing to keep in mind is Montreal’s contract number, which is now at 48. With two away from the 50 contract limit, training camp may have gotten a little more interesting. Cale Fleury must really try to force management’s hand now, but it also goes down to PTO signing Simon Despres who is determined to play professionally in North America again.

But those are questions to be answered in the next few weeks. For now, the Montreal Canadiens have players to help out, and unless you’ve caught a lot of Detroit or OHL games, both may be mysterious to some extent. On the other hand, Tatar was in the lineup for the Disney-infused Vegas team, but his role was reduced as the season went on.

So who are these guys and why should fans look forward to either of them.

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.

You Get What You Give

Tatar was a consistent producer for the Red Wings after that big season. The following year had his linemates change to Sheahan and Gustav Nyquist who he played with at times the season before. His shot totals dropped in the years afterwards (165 and 166 respectively), but he still managed to put up 21 and 25 goals.

The Vegas Golden Knights took a flyer on him ahead of the deadline looking to add more depth for the playoffs. Tatar’s minutes dropped when with his new team, and his level of play didn’t necessarily match what Gerrard Gallant had implemented throughout his lineup. That had the 27-year-old become a healthy scratch for games in the playoffs.

That’s not Tatar’s fault though. He’s a player that uses his speed to his advantage. That doesn’t really entail too much of a grinding game. However, he did get minutes with William Karlsson and Jon Marchessault who were offensive dynamos for the Golden Knights. It was a different story in the playoffs as Tatar had Ryan Carpenter and Cody Eakin on his line. With all due respect to them, neither have the offensive mindset to bring out the best in Tatar. And conversely, Tatar has established himself as being a complementary scoring piece on a line, not so much a player who can do it all on his own.

He shouldn’t be relied on to do that on the Montreal Canadiens. And if put in the right situation, Tatar could easily succeed on the roster.

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).