Should the Sabres re-sign or sell Alex Tuch at the deadline?
Backtrack to around early December, and there was no more obvious “seller” than the Buffalo Sabres. At that time, Buffalo was dwelling near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings and seemingly wading through another losing season. Starting on December 9th, however, the Sabres have won 13 of 15 games and catapulted themselves into the heat of a tightly contested Atlantic Division.
The question Buffalo general manager Jarmo Kekalainen, brought in to replace the fired Kevyn Adams on December 15th, must answer, is who are the real Buffalo Sabres? The team that struggled over the first couple months of the season, or the team that has caught fire since? The answer to that question will go a long way in determining what they do with pending unrestricted free agent Alex Tuch. When the Sabres were scuffling early on, the power forward looked like a sure bet to get moved before the trade deadline for future assets. Now that Buffalo is contending for the playoffs, they’ll have to consider keeping Tuch to maintain their winning ways.
On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed the decision Buffalo has on their hands regarding Tuch.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Before the GM switch and the big surge with Sabres, 13 of 14 games or whatever run they’re on, everyone just kind of assumed Alex Tuch is going to get traded at some point. But now Buffalo is squarely in the playoff mix. Buffalo has a guy from Buffalo on that team who wants to be there, they just need to make the contract workout. I think they’d be crazy if they traded Alex Tuch because if it was anybody else I think they’d probably be walking July 1st, but I think they have an authentic chance even if they keep Tuch through this season and don’t make the playoffs, to sign him ahead of July 1st. I think the Sabres would be crazy to trade this guy.
Carter Hutton: I think it’s huge. A guy that wants to be there, he wants to be part of the solution, and he can produce. He scored 36 goals last year, played in all 82 games. This year he’s producing again. And you don’t have these crazy contracts outside of the Josh Norris injury prevention plan to try to keep him healthy, he’s just under $8 million, and then Tage Thompson’s deal that’s $7 million. You can make it work, and obviously they have their money invested in the back end when you talk about Owen Power, and you’re betting there that he’s going to continually get better over time, along with Rasmus Dahlin. He wants to be there, you want to win. You want to prove it to your fans. I feel like if you let him walk in free agency, it’s going to be a black eye.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Wednesday’s episode here…