BUFFALO — A few days after Tage Thompson scored five goals in a game, the person who is partly responsible for turning a relative nobody into one of the NHL’s newest elite players was sitting inside the coach’s office at KeyBank Center, trying to explain how it all happened.
So Don Granato did what most coaches do and went to the whiteboard.
“I didn’t like him on the wall,” said the Buffalo Sabres head coach. “When you’re on a wall, this defenceman can play you and your options are limited.”
Granato then scribbled Thompson’s No. ’72’ in the middle of the board.
“Now, it’s not just one guy on him,” said Granato. “He’s got options. For me, his size and whatever looks attractive on the wall. But knowing his skill level, I wanted him to manipulate all of this. He can manipulate both D and make them decide who was going to play them.”
That move from the wing to the centre, which happened after Granato took over head-coaching duties from Ralph Krueger, seemed to unlock everything.
Thompson went from being in-and-out of the lineup to finishing last year with 38 goals and 68 points. Three months into this season, he’s challenging Connor McDavid for the scoring lead, with 24 goals and 46 points in 30 games. And to think, before Granato came along, the 6-foot-7 forward had never really played centre.
Then again, before Granato came along, Thompson really didn’t play much at all.
A late first-rounder who was traded from St. Louis to Buffalo as a rookie, Thompson had the misfortune of playing for four different head coaches in his first four years in the league. Each one had their own opinions of him. But it’s fair to say that most didn’t see him as a No. 1 centre.
Things seemed to get worse when Jason Botterill, the GM who had traded for Thompson, was fired in 2020. Suddenly, a 25-year-old who had never scored 14 points in a season was looking like just another prospect who hadn’t panned out. A remnant of the Ryan O’Reilly trade.
And then his old junior coach got the job and everything changed.
“I think that’s why I got that opportunity,” Thompson said of Granato, who coached the Arizona native at the U.S. National Team Development Program. “If you look at my numbers from the years prior, I don’t think another coach would have given me that opportunity based on my stats.
“I think because Donnie knew what kind of player I was he trusted me to give me an opportunity that no one else did. It’s just something that I’ve tried to take advantage of.”
What looks like an overnight success has really been nearly a decade in the making. Granato first saw Thompson play in 2013, before Thompson hit his growth spurt and long before he developed his Mario Lemieux-like reach. The following year, he went from 6-foot-1 to 6-foot-4 and landed a spot on one of the deepest and most talented U-18 teams in the history of the U.S. program.
“People ask me if I’m surprised? No, I’m not surprised at all,” said Granato. “He’s always had the skill. That’s never been the question. I got video on my computer still of him doing stuff that he’s doing here in practice. I remember he made a play to Auston Matthews on a hat trick goal that was off the charts.”
And yet, Thompson rarely played with Matthews at the U.S. program. On a star-studded team that featured so many future NHLers, including Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk, Anaehim’s Troy Terry and Arizona’s Clayton Keller and — just to name a few — Thompson was stuck on the fourth line. And he wasn’t playing centre.
“Our first line was Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk and Jack Roslovic,” said Granato. “Tage was more of a third or fourth line role for me. But every day, I was telling him that he was every bit as good as everyone else on the team. Don’t think that you’re not.”
When you’re 10th in team scoring and playing bottom-six minutes, it’s easy to think that the NHL is out of your grasp. But because Granato’s faith never wavered, neither did Thompson’s.
Granato wasn’t the only one who saw the potential. Prior to this season, Matthews called Thompson the most underrated player in the NHL, someone who just needed his hands and feet to catch up to his immense frame.
“He’s right-on in terms of growing into my body,” said Thompson. “I felt like the first couple of years I wasn’t strong enough for one-on-one battles. If I lost the puck, I’d get off balance or lose possession because I was getting pushed off it. Now, it’s allowed me to hold onto pucks more and trust my body more.”
There’s not a whole lot of players in the NHL who are as tall as Thompson. The ones that are don’t usually toe-drag the puck like he did when scoring. It’s like an NBA centre who shoots threes.
“He’s a unicorn,” said linemate Alex Tuch. “He’s really turned into probably the most skilled power forward that we’ve ever seen.”
It’s not just Thompson who has taken his development to another level. While the Sabres have struggled to take a step forward in the standings, under Granato’s watch Rasmus Dahlin is playing like a No. 1 overall pick, while Jeff Skinner is finally justifying his $9-million US cap hit.
But it’s Thompson’s turnaround that Granato is most pleased about.
“I don’t know if it’s pride or whatever, but watching him, you know he deserves it,” said Granato. “You saw the potential. As a coach, I just moved it along.”
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