Montreal Canadiens: Tomas Tatar Has Earned a Contract Extension

Following Jeff Petry’s four-year contract extension, I believe Tomas Tatar has similarly earned an extension with the Montreal Canadiens.

Since the beginning of his career, Tomas Tatar has been a consistent player. I remember back in 2013, when I read a Hockey News article on the recent Calder Cup Champion Grand Rapids Griffins.

After missing the playoffs three years in a row, the Griffins came out of nowhere in the NHL’s lockout shortened 2012-13 season, being led by a host of current NHL mainstays like Petr Mrazek and Gustav Nyquist. In the playoffs though, it was Tatar, who was 22 at the time, who stole the show. He recorded 16 goals and 5 assists in the postseason, earning AHL Playoff MVP.

It was a performance that had been long in the making for the Slovakia native, having spent the past four seasons with the Griffins after being selected 60th overall by the Detroit Red Wings in 2009. By 2013-14, it was clear Tatar was going to be given a legitimate chance to succeed in Motown, and he didn’t disappoint.

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At 29 years old, Tatar has established himself as one of the NHL’s most consistent players, having put up 40 points or more in five of his seven full seasons in the league. Entering the Red Wings 25-year playoff streak as it was ending, Tatar spent his first three seasons in the playoffs with Detroit, before the Wings were left gutted by the departure of players like Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk.

As the team sunk to the bottom of the standings and looked to rebuild (which hasn’t worked out too great thus far) Tatar was one of the experienced vets who was gradually shipped off to other teams. During the 2018 trade deadline, Detroit traded Tatar to the expansion Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for a first, second, and third round pick in 2018, 2019, and 2021, respectively.

Joining a Cinderella Vegas team that made a run to the Stanley Cup finals in their first season in the league, Tatar struggled to find ice time in coach Gerald Gallant’s system, playing in just eight of the teams’ 20 playoff games, recording two points. As the Knights looked to make room for newly acquired stars like Mark Stone, Tatar’s four year, $21.2 million contract became a burden. After just half a year with the team, Tatar was traded to the Canadiens, along with top prospect Nick Suzuki and a second round pick, in exchange for Max Pacioretty.

At the time, Tatar was seen as more of a throw in than anything, with the winger having just come off his worst season statistically, recording just 34 points over 82 games. To most, Tatar was seen as the asterisk attached to Suzuki, a former first round pick who was considered the main part of the trade. Instead, Tatar has become, in my opinion, the Canadiens best player in recent years, recording back to back 50-point seasons with the team, fitting in beautifully in Claude Julien’s speed heavy system.

In a 2018-19 season that saw Montreal miss the playoffs by just two points, Tatar was a key weapon, recording 58 points in 80 games as a powerplay beneficiary and consistent second line option. In a 2019-20 season that was mostly lost for the Habs, Tatar posted 61 points in 68 games, putting him on pace for his first 70-point season, prior to the season’s suspension. In contrast however, Tatar, like with Vegas, struggled in the playoffs, posting just two goals in 12 games as the Habs fell in six games to the Philadelphia Flyers in the second round.

Despite that, I still believe it is in the Canadiens best interest to keep Tatar and look to resign him should. For a Habs team that seems stuck in a perpetual limbo between a rebuild and a win now motif, Tatar is a player that fits well in either, and is one that I believe should stick around in Montreal as long as he can. Over the course of this season, trade rumors were swirling around Tatar and many veterans on the Canadiens, as most fans and analysts thought the team would be major sellers at the trade deadline.

While this was true, only depth players like Nick Cousins and Nate Thompson were shipped, leading to speculation as to why players like Tatar weren’t included. The Golden Knights gave up a lot to get Tatar. Joe Veleno, the player selected with that first round pick, looks promising and should become a key building block for the Red Wings should he develop properly.

In the realm of rebuilding teams, Tatar has frequently been lumped into that category of players who can net high trade value, as evidenced by his trade to Vegas. However, Vegas simply overestimated Tatar, both in how he would fit into their system and their general approach to the trade deadline, which was flawed in many ways and expected of a young, inexperienced team with unexpected success.

Montreal has seemed to be the best fit of Tatar’s career, and I think he should be respected and thought of in that regard. Trade deadline deals most of the time don’t net as high a value for the selling team as one might expect. At the end of the day, theses are rental players, who are playing on expiring contracts, and middle-seeded team’s typically don’t want to offer too much in case they end up bowing out in the first round of the playoffs, or miss the post-season all together.

Following Jeff Petry’s four-year extension with Montreal, carrying an annual value of $6.25 million, It’s obvious that the Canadiens are interested in keeping their more high end players for the foreseeable future, and at 29 years old, I think Tatar deserves to join that group. Playoffs aside, he’s still a key piece of this Canadiens team, and could be a solid veteran presence as the Canadiens look to the future with players like Suzuki, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and Cole Caufield. He’s proven his worth at every level, and despite a road bump here and there, I think Tomas Tatar has earned his place in Montreal.

He’s a key player for a developing team, and hey, isn’t that worth more than any trade deadline deal?