This towering forward with multiple 30-goal seasons has unexpectedly become available: Alex Tuch
Alex Tuch and the Buffalo Sabres are not getting a deal done. TSN insider Darren Dreger reported Friday that talks have gone nowhere.
According to Dreger, there is no progress between the two sides and Tuch is now likely heading to the open market this summer.
That is a significant development for a Sabres team that just finished 50-23-9, fourth overall in the league.
Tuch is 30 years old and put up 66 points in 79 games this season, with 33 goals, a plus-24 rating, and three shorthanded goals.
That is not a guy you let walk for nothing. A 30-goal scorer who can kill penalties and plays the right way does not grow on trees.
He also posted 7 power play goals, giving him value at every deployment level. Lindy Ruff used him in both special-teams situations, and the production followed.
In 13 playoff games, Tuch added 7 points and 2 game-winning goals. He didn't add a single point in the second round, though.
Kekalainen faces a real cost at the deadline if Tuch walks
And yet, GM Jarmo Kekalainen apparently cannot bridge the gap with a player making $4,750,000 this season.
Think about what that number means in context. Tuch hit 33 goals at under $5 million. You are not replacing that production on the free agent market without paying significantly more.
His last 10 games of the regular season, he went minus-4. But over a full 79-game sample? The numbers speak for themselves.
This situation is starting to feel less like a negotiation and more like a breakup that neither side will fully admit yet.
Buffalo went 50 wins and 109 points. They are not a team that should be losing a top-six winger with penalty kill duties and shorthanded goals to a cap dispute.
If Dreger's read is right and Tuch reaches July 1 as an unrestricted free agent, there will be no shortage of teams calling. A 30-year-old coming off a 66-point season with playoff goals? That phone is ringing before noon on free agency day.
The Sabres built something real this year. Letting a piece like Tuch walk quietly into someone else's locker room would be a strange way to reward it.
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Whether Kekalainen makes one last push or the two sides are genuinely done, the window to fix this is closing fast.
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YESTERDAY
JUNE 6, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Mitch Marner | 3 | 1 | 4 | |
| Tomas Hertl | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jordan Staal | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Shea Theodore | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Brayden McNabb | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Taylor Hall | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Martinook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jackson Blake | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jack Eichel | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Karlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jaccob Slavin | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Logan Stankoven | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||