Red Wings Re-Sign Tatar

The Detroit Red Wings finalized a deal with restricted free agent forward Tomas Tatar, which will see the 23-year old Slovak stay with the club for the next three seasons for a cap hit of $2.75 million per.

Tatar was a part of the group of young Red Wings that kept the team afloat when the veterans were plagued with injury and that was enough to earn the youngster a likely spot on the opening night roster or at the very least, a spot on the projected roster on Monday.

In 73 games with the club, Tatar finished the season with 19 goals and 39 points, which was good enough for 192nd overall in pool scoring, 136th among forwards.

In 2015, I think it will be the time for Tatar to really take flight, especially if he can find himself a top six role with the team, hopefully playing with the likes of Pavel Datsyuk or Henrik Zetterberg.  My early projection for him will be in the 50-point range, which could boost him into the top 100, assuming a full season is played.

This is a pretty reasonable signing for Detroit, who isn't struggling with the salary cap ceiling as much this season, like they have had in the past.  Tatar's signing brings them up to 21 players on the projected roster with just over $6 million left in cap space, if they decided to fill those last two roster spots.

The Red Wings only have one major RFA left on their list of "things to do this Summer" and that is defenseman Danny DeKeyser.