Winger Tomas Tatar has signed a four year, $21.2 million contract extension with the Detroit Red Wings. His contract carries a $5.3 million AAV or cap hit per season. Tatar has spent the first six seasons of his career with Detroit. The parties settled before an NHL arbitrator ruled on a contract for Tatar. The arbitration was held yesterday, and was set to be settled in the morning.
#RedWings and Tomas Tatar ageeed to 4 year deal at average cap hit of $5.3 million
— Ansar Khan (@AnsarKhanMLive) July 21, 2017
Tomas Tatar Re-Signs with Detroit Red Wings
Tatar enjoyed another season of relative health, suiting up in all 82 games, the third straight year of playing in 80+ games. Turning 27 in September, he is entering his prime and is still looking to put it all together on a consistent basis. Drafted 60th overall back in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, Tatar has been a reliable second or third line winger for Detroit in his four full seasons in the NHL. Detroit wants to see more out of their leading goal scorer of last season.
Since becoming a regular in 2013-14, Tatar’s career in Detroit has been fairly successful under unfair expectations to supplant the aging Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk. He’s scored 20+ goals in each of the last three seasons tallying 19 in ’13-14, and turned it on near season’s end. The 2009 second rounder (60th overall) turned it on in the second half to salvage one positive in a disappointing season for the team where they missed the playoffs for the first time in a quarter-century, and rebound himself after a regressive 2015-16 where he only had 21 goals.
Overall in 2016-17, Tatar tallied 25 markers and 46 points, scoring 13 in the final 25 contests. His 50.65% Corsi-for percentage was third on the team among forwards who played at least 700 minutes this season behind Henrik Zetterberg and Anthony Mantha. The last two seasons under Blashill among forwards who played a minimum of 1000 minutes, he has been the best possession forward on the team coming in at a 53.24% Corsi-for percentage, ranking first in Corsi-against per 60 (46.88).
Historical Numbers
However, he has struggled to match the level of production he had in his career year under Mike Babcock in 2014-15, when he scored 29 goals and 56 points in his second full season, when his Corsi-for per 60 was off the charts at 61.48 and he fired a career-high 211 shots on goal. He’s failed to break 170 in the last two years. Losing Pavel Datsyuk and having an aging Henrik Zetterberg didn’t do him any favors offensively, but he seemed to find his way on the captain’s wing when he earned a permanent spot there the last quarter of the year.
In terms of contract history, Tatar’s previous deal, his only one besides the entry-level contract, paid him $2.75 million per season for the last three years. He had two slides on his entry-level contract that allowed him to be signed until 2014, when he inked the first standard deal.
Before being drafted in 2009, Tatar played in the Slovak League with Zvolen HKm. During his single season with Zvolen he played in 48 games, scoring seven goals, adding eight assists, and only having 20 penalty minutes.
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