This year’s crop of NHL free agents is set to be incredibly shallow in high-end talent, aside from one name: forward Alex Tuch.
The Buffalo Sabres winger is one of just four forwards — and six players overall — who scored at least 60 points or more last season and will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1. The other three forwards in that group are Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, and Anthony Mantha, with Mantha being the likely only other option to Tuch for 31 teams in the league.
Tuch, a Syracuse, New York native, has spent the past five seasons with the Sabres, recording a career-best 79 points (36g, 43a) during the 2022-23 campaign. This past season, he finished third on the team in scoring with 66 points (33g, 33a) in 79 games, adding seven points (4g, 3a) in 13 playoff games for the upstart Sabres.
The biggest question surrounding Tuch will be whether he even reaches unrestricted free agency, as the Sabres could seek to re-sign him before any other team can extend their best offer. Buffalo’s problem will be how expensive Tuch could be as they are set to have just $12.9 million in cap space the summer, and per AFP Analytics, Tuch’s next deal is projected to be a seven-year contract worth $10.12 million per season.
“I have no idea,” Tuch said earlier this week. “I wish I could tell you the future. I’m going to do whatever is best for myself and my family. I don’t know how the talks are going to proceed. I don’t know what they are going to say. I don’t know the future. But my main priority is my family.”
Tuch is also not the only free agent the Sabres will have to decide on, as Zach Benson, Peyton Krebs, Beck Malenstyn, Tanner Pearson, Joshua Dunne, Michael Kesselring, Luke Schenn, and Logan Stanley are all not yet under contract for next year. Benson, a scheduled restricted free agent, is expected to command around $5-7 million per season, depending on the length of contract he signs.
With Tuch currently slated to hit the open market, one team that could try to woo him is the Washington Capitals. Caps general manager Chris Patrick wants to add a top-six forward to his group this summer and has shown in the past, with Nikolaj Ehlers last summer, that he isn’t afraid to use free agency to do so.
According to PuckPedia, the Capitals are currently set to have $33.2 million in cap space this offseason, making Tuch an easy addition, even after taking care of other potential business with players like Ovechkin and Connor McMichael. Tuch is a right wing, so he could be a perfect fit on a line with Ovechkin and Dylan Strome if he joins the Caps.
Tuch, who, while with the Vegas Golden Knights, was part of Braden Holtby’s “The Save” in Game 2 of the 2018 Stanley Cup Final, would add more size to an already big Capitals team as he is 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds. He was also a regular penalty killer for the Sabres, ranking second among Buffalo’s forwards in shorthanded ice time per game (2:26).
