Tomas Tatar the latest Detroit Red Wings castoff to disappoint elsewhere

The Detroit Red Wings look like early winners in the Tomas Tatar trade.

Tatar has joined the list of Wings players who have not performed as expected after leaving Detroit. The Vegas Golden Knights wrote another chapter in their delightful story on Wednesday when the expansion franchise advanced to Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs after a four-game sweep of Los Angeles.

That feat came without the services of Tatar, who was a healthy scratch after the first two games of the best-of-seven series. The Wings traded Tatar on Feb. 26 for a 2018 first-round pick, a 2019 second-round pick and a 2021 third-round pick.

More: Tomas Tatar: It was 'pretty stressful' to be traded by Red Wings

Tatar had 16 goals in 62 games with Detroit this season, but he only scored four more goals during the regular season, finishing with six points in 20 games with the Knights.

The Knights likely will use Tatar again in the playoffs, and he figures into their future with three years left on his contract. But it hasn’t been a good look so far, especially considering Tatar has the second-highest salary cap hit on the team at $5.3 million (trailing only Marc-Andre Fleury’s $5.75 million cap hit).

Tatar isn’t the only one who has struggled with a new team. The Wings traded goalie Petr Mrazek to the Philadelphia Flyers on Feb. 19 for a conditional fourth-round pick in 2018 and a conditional third-round pick in 2019. Mrazek has played in Philadelphia like he did in Detroit: Up and down. He started 3-0 with a 1.30 goals-against average and .947 save percentage. He went 0-2-1 during the next stretch with a 4.54 goals-against average and .854 save percentage.

Mrazek recovered to win two more games, and, coupled with the Flyers reaching the playoffs, that improved the 2018 pick to the third round. Mrazek had appeared once in the first three games of the Flyers’ first-round series against Pittsburgh, relieving f Brian Elliott halfway through Game 1.

The Penguins have happier memories from the trade involving Riley Sheahan. Remember him, the guy who didn’t have a goal in the 2016-17 season until scoring twice in the final game at Joe Louis Arena? The Wings sent Sheahan to the defending Stanley Cup champions Oct. 21 for Scott Wilson and a 2018 third-round pick. Sheahan produced 11 goals and 32 points for the Penguins in the regular season, and he had one assist over the first three playoff games).

The Wings sent Wilson to Buffalo in December, in exchange for a 2019 fifth-round pick.

There’s probably no team that would like to undo a recent trade with the Wings more than the New York Rangers. At the 2017 trade deadline, as defenseman Brendan Smith neared unrestricted free agency, the Wings traded him for a 2017 third-round pick and a 2018 second-round pick (the 2018 pick originally was Ottawa’s, so it will be the second pick in the second round because the Senators finished 30th in the standings this season).

The Rangers re-signed Smith for four years and $17.4 million on June 29.

But by Feb. 8, Smith had played his way onto waivers — which he cleared — and onto the roster of the Rangers’ AHL affiliate in Hartford. Shortly after joining the Wolf Pack, Smith broke his hand in a fight with a teammate during a practice.

The Wings also sent Thomas Vanek to Florida at the 2017 trade deadline in exchange for a package that included a conditional third-round pick in 2017.

A few days before the deadline, the Wings sent Tomas Jurco to Chicago, also for a third-round pick in that year’s draft. Jurco went on to score one goal in 13 games with the Blackhawks and was a healthy scratch during the playoffs.

The Wings were due some good karma after 2015. They acquired Marek Zidlicky from New Jersey at the trade deadline in exchange for a 2016 conditional third-round pick and Erik Cole from Dallas in exchange for Mattias Backman, Mattias Janmark and a 2015 second-round pick. Zidlicky had 14 points in 21 regular-season games with Detroit but suffered a concussion in the playoffs and was out for Game 7 of the first-round series loss against Tampa Bay.

Cole was a huge disappointment — he played 11 games before being sidelined the rest of the season because of a spinal contusion.

Contact Helene St. James: hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Check out our Red Wings Xtra app on Apple and Android!