Tomas Tatar is one of the Red Wings latest finds breaking through this season…

With teammate Gustav Nyquist flourishing in the absence of Detroit's myriad of stars lost to injury, Slovak, Tomas Tatar has been riding along shotgun for quite the ride!

It has been well documented that the Detroit Red Wings in 2014 have faced near inhuman deprivation of regulars from their everyday lineup. This has been especially true of late, making the push for 23 straight years in the NHL's second season all the more impressive.

In fact, Detroit has just broke a franchise record with 350 man games lost to injury as of March 24^th. This naturally forced them to debut the highest number of rookies (seven) in one season since the 1990-91 campaign AKA – Lidstrom's rookie year. This is simply unfathomable for a franchise leaning so heavily on those of the veteran ilk the past quarter century. However, this has certainly proven to be a blessing in disguise as said youngsters have been given the surprise ice time and extra room to grow in the big show.

Most notably, the aforementioned Nyquist has shown the hockey world that he indeed is for real, and no longer just a blue chip prospect. His dominant 2014, where's he's been the top goal-scorer in the league (by five goals over the next closest competitor) has provided dividends for Tatar.

Tomas Tatar's Most Common Pairing Combination via Frozen Pools (over past 10 games)

The 23-year-old Tatar has benefitted immensely from his presence on the kid line, alongside Riley Sheahan and Nyquist. The trio were arguable the most important contributors for Grand Rapids Calder Cup Triumph last spring. It's no surprise they were re-united to rekindle their prior magic with many of the top dogs out of commission.

In last season's cup of coffee, Tatar put together a half decent seven points over 18 games. He followed that up with a wonderful AHL playoff run (21 points in 24 games). That experience along with an increased role this season has led to a marked increase in rate of performance in the pros. He's now hauled in 32 points over 63 games.

Tomas Tatar's PPG over past 2 weeks via Frozen Pools

More recently Tatar has picked it up recently, showing poise in big moments. He is within spitting distance of a 20-goal campaign and seems to have been invigorated after representing his native Slovakia at the Olympic Games.

Last Six Games

Captain, Henrik Zetterberg, has revealed that he will not be returning prior to the end of the regular season, and Pavel Datsyuk is still not ready to rejoin, among a host of others, so Tatar will continue to eat up huge minutes, including on the power play, occasionally. 16% of his points on the season have come with the man advantage thus far, and with the big guns still out for the time being, you can definitely expect to see him continuing to log some time on the man up.

Tomas Tatar, as evidenced by his production map (above) has produced consistently all season long. This consistency is rarely seen by someone who has played under 100 games and, let alone for those picked 60^th overall in a given entry draft, or later.

As long as the Zetterberg and Datsyuk remain on the mend you can expect this level of production to continue.

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