Montreal Canadiens: An Ode to Tomas Tatar

With the season ending press conference out of the way, there was plenty of things to talk about. There was a lot of drama and heartbreak, disappointment and hope, promising futures and the question of the future of Marc Bergevin. But there was one thing that was missing from those interviews. Tomas Tatar.

The sometimes mercurial winger was as he was in the playoffs, missing in action. Which all but struck the death knell on the relationship between the Canadiens and Tatar before he officially signed in New Jersey.

But lets go back to the beginning. Tatar was drafted in the second round, 60th overall, in the 2009 draft. He wound up being a bit of a steal for the Red Wings that drafted him, as he is currently 13th in points in his draft class and 11th in goals. The only players drafted behind him that have more points are Reilly Smith, Tyson Barrie and Mike Hoffman. He also has more points than first round picks Kyle Palmieri, Chris Kreider and Nick Leddy.

It took a few years for Tatar to make the NHL, playing 9 games in 2010-11, before becoming an NHL regular in 2013-14. His first season was pretty good, with 19 goals and 39 points. And as a member of the Red Wings he became a steady 20 goal scorer until 2017-18.

As the Red Wings were failing and looking at a lengthy rebuild, they looked at moving the veterans for prospects and futures. Tatar fell into the older player category and was moved to the Vegas Golden Knights, who were in their first season and gearing up for a playoff run.

The haul was a 2018 first round pick (Joe Veleno), a 2019 second round pick (Robert Mastrosimone) and a 2021 third round pick. The picks were all late in the rounds, but Veleno projects to be a good two-way forward, and has already played 5 NHL games and scored 1 goal.

On the team of misfits that were the Golden Knights, Tatar was the misfit among misfits. In 20 games as a Knight, he recorded just 4 goals and 6 points, and was often a healthy scratch in the Golden Knights’ Final run.

It was clear that Tatar was not long for the Sin City, and was packaged along with Nick Suzuki and a second round pick in 2019 (Samuel Fagemo) for the former Canadiens’ captain Max Pacioretty. Suzuki was the jewel in the return for Pacioretty, but Tatar provided to be a good stopgap while Suzuki developed further in the minors.

His first year in Montreal was a career one, scoring 28 goals and 58 points, the highest point total of his career. He scored the game winner in Montreal’s first game against their former captain and one of the most entertaining regular season games I have seen in a long time. Maybe only rivalled by the win against Washington where Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored his first two goals and Max Domi scored the winner with just seconds remaining in the game.

Tatar had exalted himself into Montreal’s first line and into the hearts and minds of all Canadiens fans. He got the legendary nickname Tuna, and who could forget this guy. Together with centre Phillip Danault and fellow winger Brendan Gallagher, he formed one of the most dominant even strength lines in the entire league.

The next year was even better for Tatar. The 2019-20 season saw Tatar score 22 goals and 39 assists for 61 points for the best point total on the team and his best point output of his career once again. The Montreal Canadiens were not great that year, on track to miss the playoffs once again, before the pandemic struck and they managed to squeak into the play-in rounds and face the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Two players saw their stock diminish greatly during the play-in round against Pittsburgh and subsequent playoff round against Philadelphia. First was Max Domi, who was already struggling to produce to his high standards set the season before, finished the playoffs on the fourth line (being passed by Danault and Kotkaniemi on the depth chart) and had only 3 assists on his scoresheet.

The second was Tomas Tatar. It was impossible to know how Domi would play in the playoffs, since those 10 games in 2020 were the only postseason games he had played in the NHL, and remain his only playoff experience to this day. Tatar has continually struggled to produce in the playoffs and this year was no different. 2 goals in 10 games, but those 2 goals also both came in one game, Game 2 against Philadelphia.

In 40 career playoff games, Tatar has just 6 goals and 12 points. He is a great regular season performer, 176 goals and 377 points in 625 games, but has never been able to elevate his game in the postseason, where the games get harder and points become harder to come by. That is not to discount his great regular season, where he led the Canadiens in points and tied for the lead in goals.

Tatar struggled this past year, with Gallagher missing significant time at the end of the year due to a hand injury, and Danault struggling to find offence even by his standards. Tatar finished with 10 goals and 30 points. His lowest goal total since 2012-13 where he only played 18 games. Ditto with his point totals, although the points would probably be around his average if it was a full 82 game season.

This postseason was just plain awful for Tatar. He scored just a sole assist, but only found his way into the lineup for 5 of Montreal’s playoff games. He was unfortunately passed up by other options on the team like Tyler Toffoli, Cole Caufield and Joel Armia. It is odd that a team can go to the Stanley Cup Final without their top line winger and not really notice he was out.

And Tatar seemed to fall victim to the changing of the guard in Montreal. He is great in the regular season, but as the youth in Montreal continues to grow and get better, the focus begins to shift from regular season success to postseason success. And Tatar simply does not have it in the postseason. His production will be missed in the regular season as a jack-of-all-offensive-traits, but there is not much to miss in the playoffs.

And I think that the problem is that he is good at all aspects of the offensive game. He can skate well, pass well and shoot well, but he is not going to particularly wow you consistently with any one aspect of his game. And when the game is heightened in the playoffs, good just doesn’t cut it and you have to be exceptional, and Tatar cannot bring his game up to that status.

He is an interesting fit on the New Jersey Devils, and can fill in the spot that Kyle Palmieri and/or Travis Zajac left after being traded to the Islanders. He can easily be one of, if not the, leading scorer on this Devils team, and will be well worth the $4.5 million per year he is being paid.

Tatar played well against his former team in Vegas as a member of the Canadiens, so it will be interesting to see on December 23rd how he will fare in his first game against the Canadiens. And it will be interesting to see what the reaction will be. He was never a bad player in the regular season for the Canadiens, and made the case of possibly being the best in 2019-20, but his playoff performance left much to be desired.

It is easy to forget that he was a big part of one of Montreal’s best lines in years and produced some great moments for the Habs. Its just a pity that he could never put it together in the playoffs, and that is what ultimately made Bergevin decide he was expendable. It is too bad, as Tatar could’ve made a big difference in Montreal’s playoff run if he played like he did in the regular season and been a big part of this team’s future. But unfortunately it didn’t come to be, and it will be fun to see what Tatar can do in the future.