Newest Kraken Tomas Tatar settles in nicely during frantic first 8 days

ANAHEIM, Calif. – In four games with the Kraken, veteran journeyman Tomas Tatar has doubled his goal total from the previous 27 games in Colorado. The top line is buzzing like it hasn’t all season.

A mutually beneficial arrangement.

“Hockey feels right again,” Tatar said Saturday after a 3-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks in which he netted the game-winner.

He was a 20-goal scorer just last season in New Jersey, but the Rocky Mountains didn’t suit him. He signed a one-year deal with the Colorado Avalanche and it just didn’t work out. His offensive production slowed to nine points and one goal. He was a healthy scratch before the Avalanche dealt him to Seattle on Dec. 15 for a fifth-round pick, a paltry sum compared to what he used to demand. At 33, wild as it sounds, another chance isn’t always right around the corner.

He was waiting at home for news of the trade and ready to catch a flight when it came. Tatar joined the Kraken for morning skate roughly 10 hours after arriving in his Seattle hotel and that night, debuted on the top line with Matty Beniers and Jared McCann.

Jordan Eberle returned from an injury a game later and was paired up with defending rookie of the year Beniers as usual. McCann dropped down to the second line and Tatar kept his spot.

Tatar scored his first in the Kraken uniform Dec. 18 against the Dallas Stars on a 2-on-1-ish, under pressure and set up by Beniers. During the third period Saturday night against the Ducks, the Kraken were up 2-1 but needed insurance. Tatar was patient with his shot selection, zipping around the offensive zone and ultimately sending the puck top-shelf. Badly struggling through late November and early December, the Kraken (12-14-9) held on for a close victory and secured a standings point in a sixth straight game.

“I’m very grateful for the guys, how they welcomed me here in Seattle,” Tatar said. “It looks like me, Matty and Ebs are building some chemistry and I’m having a lot of fun.”

His longtime nickname, appropriate for a team that chucks three stuffed salmon into the Climate Pledge Arena crowd after each home victory, is “Tuna,” as in tuna tartare. Tatar told a podcast hosted by former players Marian Gaborik and Boris Valabik – helpfully translated by Reddit – that the first time he was called up to the Detroit Red Wings, Tomas Holmstrom incredulously compared his last name to the menu item with a curse word thrown in for good measure. It’s stuck for more than a decade.

In 2021, during a stint in Montreal, a restaurant chain offered customers a discount on their “tuna Tatar” for each goal the forward scored, which wound up at 10 that season. Tatar himself boosted the promotion on his Instagram.

He was immediately Tuna to his new coach and teammates in Seattle.

“Everything just seems very easy right now,” Tatar said.

Tatar saluted his linemates’ “honest, two-way hockey,” but it hadn’t been going easy for them this season either. Beniers has experienced long scoring slumps while Eberle ended a 12-game goal drought on Wednesday.

The timing for this boost is curious. On nearly the same day last season, while sitting pretty in the Western Conference standings, the Kraken snagged third-line winger Eeli Tolvanen off waivers. Tolvanen had been scratched for a few weeks by the Nashville Predators, the only team he’d played for up to that point, and was scratched for another two weeks while learning the ropes in Seattle. He debuted New Year’s Day and immediately scored his first goal, potting eight in 15 January games and eventually finding a home on Yanni Gourde’s left side, where he’s remained.

“Kind of a sneaky pickup that no one really sees coming, then he comes in here and makes a statement, just like Tolvy did,” defenseman Vince Dunn said of Tatar.

“He’s been great for us. The chemistry he’s found with Ebs and Matty, it’s terrific. That’s what our team really needs right now. However we get it done, we just have to find a way to get wins here.”

Coach Dave Hakstol said it was a different situation, that Tolvanen was scratching and clawing for an opportunity after Nashville moved on from him.

“When he came in, it was obvious that he was hungry and he was ready,” Hakstol said. “He found a home, chemistry-wise, with his linemates pretty quickly.”

Dunno, coach. That sounds fairly similar, aside from their respective resumes and Tatar’s immediate playing time.

Tatar was able to adjust to the Kraken’s systems quickly. The Avalanche were built differently, maybe even more traditionally. Their formidable top two forwards, Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon, do the heavy lifting with a rotating supporting cast. Numbering the Kraken’s lines often feels like a formality. Expectations and opportunity are almost even throughout the lineup, something Tatar noted and expressed appreciation for the morning he arrived.

“He was excited and hungry to come in and help us,” Hakstol said.

“For me, his presence is outstanding. Very, very smart individual player. He brings that to the table, to the people around him.”

After a fast-paced first eight days with the Kraken, Tatar and his new teammates get a quick breather. After three days off from practice for Christmas, they’ll reconvene in Calgary for a game Wednesday.

“It’s a good little mental reset for us,” Dunn said. “But by no means (can) we take our foot off the gas.”