Alex Tuch’s exit from Buffalo came down to one last swing from the Sabres, but the gap never fully closed.
The 30-year-old winger said Tuesday on the Cam & Strick Podcast that Buffalo general manager Jarmo Kekalainen made an “11th-hour push” before the team sent Tuch to the Washington Capitals in a late-June sign-and-trade agreement. Tuch said the Sabres did come up in money, but not enough to get the deal done.
"There was, as you guys like to call it, the 11th-hour push there. And there was a push," Tuch said.
"I really did appreciate it. They came up [in money].
I'm not gonna give any specifics on the matter. There was still a bit of a gap.
It just didn't work out and that's the nature, that's the business. I knew that if you look at it - if they get me closer to my number and stuff, then they're gonna have to move pieces out, so I understand that part of the business.
I get that."
Tuch signed an eight-year, $84 million contract with Washington as part of the move, landing exactly the kind of extension he had been seeking. The deal came a week before he would have officially reached unrestricted free agency.
The winger said the emotions around the process were real, but not overwhelming in hindsight.
"I think the emotional roller coaster of it all, looking back on it, it's not that big a deal I guess," Tuch said. "It's gonna hit hard when I go back to Buffalo and play in front of those fans again. I know that."
Tuch’s time in Buffalo ended after 360 games and 309 points, with 139 goals and 170 assists. He arrived in Western New York in 2021 as part of the blockbuster Jack Eichel trade after earlier stops with the Minnesota Wild and Vegas Golden Knights.
Before the move, the expectation had been that Tuch wanted a max-term extension with a double-digit average annual value, and the number eventually settled around $10.5 million per season after Adrian Kempe signed for $10.6 million a year with the Los Angeles Kings. Washington ultimately met that price.
The Capitals are loading up around Alex Ovechkin, who is set to return for at least one more season. Washington also added Jordan Kyrou in a trade with the St. Louis Blues and signed Boone Jenner in free agency.
From Buffalo’s side, the decision was about more than just losing a productive forward. The Sabres were already working through a salary-cap crunch, and a premium contract running deep into Tuch’s late 30s carried obvious risk.
Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic estimated Tuch would bring only $7.5 million in market value per season on an eight-year deal, which would leave $24 million in excess salary over the life of the contract. Luszczyszyn also projected Tuch at $8.7 million in value next season, meaning the deal would begin underwater right away.
That kind of commitment might make sense for a team chasing a title right now, and Washington’s all-in approach fits that mold with Ovechkin’s timeline in mind. Buffalo, though, is still trying to reopen its contention window after a 14-year playoff drought, and tying up major money in a contract with limited upside would have made the future harder to manage.
The Sabres already have several key players locked in for the foreseeable future, including Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson, Zach Benson, Josh Doan, Owen Power and Mattias Samuelsson. More young players - Konsta Helenius, Noah Ostlund and Jiri Kulich - will need new deals in the coming years, which makes flexibility especially important.
Buffalo’s offseason has already included another notable departure, with defenseman Bowen Byram traded to the Chicago Blackhawks after an extension proved out of reach. Even so, the Sabres still have plenty of talent on the roster, and they added Olen Zellweger in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks as a lower-cost replacement for Byram.
Kekalainen may not be done yet. He has been linked to a possible trade for Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck and to the idea of bringing Buffalo native Patrick Kane back in free agency, although the chatter around both has quieted lately.
For now, though, the Tuch decision stands as one of the clearest examples of the Sabres’ current direction: protect the long view, even when it means letting a major name walk.
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