By Jordan Long
The Colorado Avalanche open the regular season on October 11 on the road against L.A. That will be the first of 3 straight games away from Ball Arena. Their first home game is on October 19th when they host Chicago. The Avalanche added veteran forward Tomas Tatar to the roster.
Tatar has played at the NHL level for 12 years. His stops include Detroit, Vegas, Montreal, and the New Jersey Devils. Last year, he was with New Jersey. There he scored 20 goals and added 28 assists for a total of 48 points. The Devils earned a playoff spot.
In the postseason, Tatar was a disappointment, scoring only 1 goal. The Devils were knocked out in the second-round by the Carolina Hurricanes in 5 games. Once game 5 ended, Tatar entered free agency. It took a while, but Colorado finally decided to give him a contract.
According to the Denverpost.com, Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland, “Tomas has been a consistent, productive player throughout his NHL career. He is a veteran winger who brings scoring depth to our middle six and can contribute at both ends of the ice. We are excited to have him under contract for this season.”
The Avalanche needed depth on this team. They lost a key contributor who added secondary scoring last year in Evan Rodrigues. Rodriguez scored 16 goals and added 23 assists for 39 points. In the first round against Seattle, he had 1 goal and 4 assists for 5 points. Rodrigues agreed to a 4-year $12 million contract with Florida. This left Colorado with a void.
Tatar is a skater who can help this team score. In his career, he lit the lamp 211 times. 7 of his NHL seasons, he surpassed the 20-goal mark. He has great vision on the ice to find his teammates for them to score with 244 assists.
Those stats are great for the regular season. The Avalanche though should be a playoff team, but they want to go past the first-round this upcoming season. Tatar brings in 52 games of NHL playoff experience where he has scored 7 goals and 6 assists.
Colorado is expecting Tatar to add to the scoring depth. If he can, Colorado won’t have to worry about their secondary scoring behind Nathan MacKinnon, Artturi Lehkonen, Ryan Johansen, Mikko Rantanen, and Valeri Nichushkin. The worst case is Tatar can’t find his scoring touch. It is only a 1-year deal so Colorado can cut ties with him at the end of the year.
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