Evan Rawal
The Colorado Avalanche thought they could sneak a new face by us at skate today, but I know my faces, and one of the faces I’m familiar with is Tomas Tatar.
Just 15 minutes after word began to spread that Tatar was on the ice with the Avalanche, the organization made his one-year contract official.
So, what can Tatar bring to the Avalanche this coming season? I have my thoughts, which I’ll have up tomorrow, but I wanted to share someone else’s opinion.
For further insight, I spoke to an Eastern Conference scout, the same one who spoke to me about their other pickups this summer from the East. After all, the 32 year old forward has spent the last five seasons of his career out East, playing for the New Jersey Devils and Montreal Canadiens, so they’ve seen Tatar play plenty.
“They are getting an older vet that will play 2nd/3rd line role,” the scout told me. “He had a nice rebound season with the Devils after not a great one in the first year of his two-year deal. He’s a vet that can help with leadership, if needed, and still has some pretty good offensive prowess for a 2nd/3rd line winger. Can play on 2nd pp unit.”
Okay, that sounds pretty good. Tatar did score 20 goals last year, but guys hanging around un-signed in September are usually there for a reason.
Sometimes, that reason is as simple as money
“My guess is the agent overshot his market. Probably thought could get 2-3 what deal with an average of like 2-3.5,” the scout said.
But with Tatar, his availability this late in the summer could be due to a few other things. This scout went into a little more detail on the winger.
“One thing is if he’s not getting points or creating offense, he doesn’t offer up much more,” they told me. “He’s been plagued with consistency issues. I do think he’s like 31-33 range, so you never know when Father Time time will catch up, but he still possesses good speed, so his style/skill set definitely will be helped by playing with the Avs. I can see him having a solid regular season but could disappear in the playoffs.”
Ah, yes. The playoffs. There are a lot of reasons to like Tatar. He’s been a pretty consistent producer during the regular season, and has surpassed 20 goals in three of the last five seasons.
But when it comes to the playoffs, that productivity disappears. During the regular season, he scores at a .58 point-per-game rate. Come playoff time, that number drops to .25.
That’s not exactly a small drop off, so what could be the reasoning behind it?
“Doesn’t possess hard skill and that’s what is needed in the playoffs,” the scout said. “Guys like Gabe, Point, etc., they are obviously really talented players but they attack the paint and play in the hard areas around the net.”
This is an Avalanche squad that plans on playing well into the Spring. There’s little doubt that Tatar makes them a better team during the regular season, but when the postseason rolls around, he’ll have to silence the doubters.
“He’s a solid pick up. I just don’t see him having a major impact when it comes playoff time.”