MONTREAL — Tomas Tatar should fit in perfectly with the Montreal Canadiens — if only because he has a lot to prove after authoring a disappointing ending to last season.

The 27-year-old Slovak, who’s averaged 24 goals per season over his last four, was traded from the Detroit Red Wings to the Vegas Golden Knights at last year’s trade deadline, and he struggled mightily to find his place with his new team.

Tatar finished with just four goals and six points in 20 regular-season games before sitting as a healthy scratch for 12 of 20 playoff games.

On Tuesday, some 36 hours after he and 19-year-old forward Nick Suzuki — along with a 2019 second-round draft pick — were traded to the Montreal Canadiens for 30-goal scorer Max Pacioretty, Tatar was asked to explain why that ended up being the case.

"It wasn’t easy, it was my first trade," said Tatar on a conference call. "When you arrive in Vegas, you just saw everyone really played really confident. Obviously, I knew I should be better. But, in the end, once we got to the playoffs, the only goal for the whole team is to go as far as you can and to win the Stanley Cup. So if you’re not playing, you just have to support the team and try to make as much out of it as possible. At the end of the day, we did a great job and were one [series] win away from a Stanley Cup."

But the Golden Knights ended up losing to the Washington Capitals in the Cup final in five games last June, and after giving up a 2018 first-round pick, a 2019-second round pick and a 2021 third-round pick to acquire Tatar’s services from Detroit in February, they were quick to move on from him.

"We’re a better team today than we were yesterday," Golden Knights general manager George McPhee said on Monday.

Tatar certainly doesn’t agree with the sentiment, and he’s eager to prove to the Canadiens and their fans that he’s not the player who appeared to be fading in Vegas.

"You know, I’m 27, so it should be the prime age and I’ll try to chip in as much as I can," Tatar said. "I was trying to work really hard to feel good before the season starts. The plan was to show the people in Vegas that I should be on the top, top line, and now it’s changed, so I’m really excited to join Montreal. I want to prove I can be on the top lines and be productive and show I can score maybe 30 goals."

Tatar topped out at 29 during the 2014-15 season and has since scored at least 20 goals in each of the last three seasons. He had the benefit of playing with some elite centres over that time, including future hall-of-famers Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg.

But that’s a luxury Tatar won’t have in Montreal.

When he was asked on Tuesday as to what the ideal circumstances would be to get him back to the production level he’s been at for the majority of his seven-year NHL career, he said he’s not making any requests and added it’ll be up to the coaches to see where he fits best with the Canadiens.

It’s the same way Suzuki is approaching this new opportunity.

The 13th overall pick in 2017, who was born in Ontario and is of Japanese descent, is a natural centreman who has played wing at times over the last two seasons with the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack.

"I think I’ve always wanted to prove that I can play centre," he said on Tuesday. "I know a lot of the teams are looking for bigger centres, but I think I can still play the centre position well. I think it doesn’t really matter how tall you are or how big you are. I think I play in the D-zone well as a centre, and it’s just my most comfortable position for me."

Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin didn’t want to nail down the five-foot-11, 183-pound forward’s position before getting a chance to see him play at training camp, which is set to open with medical tests on Thursday.

"He’s a skilled, cerebral player," said Bergevin on Monday. "He thinks the game well. I know the half-wall — he’s been playing that [on the power play]. He makes plays, he thinks offensively, and that’s what he brings. He’s got a skill set that made him the 13th pick overall."

The way Suzuki described himself certainly lends to the idea that he might be best off in the middle of the ice. He emphasized his two-way ability and his defensive awareness in his own zone and he pointed to arguably the most versatile centre in the NHL in Boston’s Patrice Bergeron as the player he looks up to most.

McPhee said on Monday that he believes Suzuki is still a year or two away from playing in the NHL, so the kid joins Tatar in wanting to prove his former general manager wrong.

Both players, who came across as highly motivated in their introductory press conference, arrive in Montreal on Wednesday and they should mesh well with a Canadiens group that’s eager to defy expectations and prove a 28th-place finish in the 31-team league last season was just a one-off.