If expectations were a trifle head-spinning heading into the Detroit Red Wings 2014 training camp, Tatar had no one to blame but himself.
He was, after all, responsible for them.
If expectations were a trifle head-spinning heading into the Detroit Red Wings 2014 training camp, Tatar had no one to blame but himself.
He was, after all, responsible for them.
The prior season, Tatar's first exclusive one in the NHL since arriving from the Slovakian League five years earlier, he finished second on the Red Wings with 19 goals.
Projecting big things, Detroit signed him that off-season to a three-year contract extension. One of a number of young, fast forwards the team was bringing in, Tatar responded with a team-high 29 goals and finished with 56 points, third-highest on the team.
Selected by the Red Wings in the second round (No. 60) in the 2009 NHL Draft, Tatar paid his dues, spending the majority of the next four seasons with Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League. In his first three seasons in the organization he appeared in only nine NHL games and scored a single goal, all in 2010-11.
But he continued to work away in the minors, improving his point total each of the first three seasons with Grand Rapids and playing a huge role in the team winning the 2013 Calder Cup.
Joining Grand Rapids only after the Red Wings had exited early from the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Tatar went on a scoring tear, with 16 goals and 21 points in 24 games as Grand Rapids defeated Syracuse in six games in the Calder Cup Final. Tatar contributed a goal in the 5-2 title-clinching victory.
Born in the small town of Ilava in northwestern Slovakia, Tatar has been a mainstay internationally for his country, participating in two World Junior Championships, the 2014 Winter Olympics and four World Senior Championships.
In 2012, at the World Championship in Finland, Tatar was the youngest player on Slovakia's roster, but he contributed five points as the surprising Slovaks claimed the silver medal.
