Total Season Stats: 44 G, 28 A, 72 pts, -2 in 76 games
Age: 27
Contract Status: Finished year two of a seven-year, $50 million contract with a cap hit of $7,142,857
Not the best career year for Tage Nathaniel Thompson, but not a bad one either. He did bounce back from a lackluster campaign in 2023-24 to lead the Sabres in both goals and points scored.
For having a howitzer of a slapshot, Tage only scored seven times on the power play with 16 points in all, which goes a long way towards understanding why the Sabres were so anemic with the man advantage. A big task this offseason will be finding ways to unlock Thompson on the power play, while also taking advantage of the fact that defenders will ‘cheat’ towards his side knowing that he usually has that slapper uncorked and ready to fire.
This was his fifth season in Buffalo, and in three of those seasons he’s played 70-something games and managed a total of 16 measly points on the power play. More and more that 22-23 season under Don Granato is starting to look like an outlier when he blasted 34 pts (20G, 14A) with the man advantage, and going 47G, 47A for 94 points playing run-and-gun hockey.
Thompson will not be an elite-level playmaker, and neither is he blessed with a two-way mindset. His role for this team is all about being a goalscorer, and that is what he needs to focus on. An effective center he is not, especially winning only 42.8% at the faceoff dot, and it’s no surprise he ended the season out at wing. Defensively he was not great especially when out of puck possession, and his backchecking could certainly use improvement.
In general though, good things seem to happen with Tage on the ice, with his Corsi For% leading all forwards at 56.95% in all situations. His On Ice EV GF% is at 51.0% which is not great, but also not the worst on a Sabres team that consistently failed to play strong defensive hockey.
So, the question on Tage Thompson is a good one – is he an NHL-level top line center? Is he a top-line forward? Neither?
Watching his play improve when anyone else but he is centering the top line does seem to indicate that he should thrive if placed with an elite center. But those don’t grow on trees, and Buffalo have been unable to either groom or keep one.
Another criticism that has been (wrongly?) placed on Thompson’s shoulders has been that he tends to ‘disappear’. Taking a look at his game logs for the last season, his longest scoreless streak was three games, which he hit thrice this season. He still finished the season very close to a point-per-game player, missing only six games which is also a respectable number.
Grade: B+
At the end of the day, when you’re a top player at a team that failed to make the playoffs, you probably carry a bit more than your share of the blame. From the perspective that Tage is probably a second-liner on most Cup contenders, then his 72-pt season seems worthy of an A- grade. However, is it his fault that he’s been elevated to the top line here? When you overvalue something that then doesn’t live up to that value, that’s on you. Or in this case, Kevyn Adams.
Good players who can break through when put in a bad situation deserve to be called great. Tage didn’t quite show that this season, and along with his power play futility, it earns him a B+.