Capitals overpaid Alex Tuch to save on trade assets

The Washington Capitals definitely bolstered their lineup with a talented scoring threat, but at a pretty high cost.

On Wednesday, the Capitals acquired forward Alex Tuch from the Buffalo Sabres as part of a sign-and-trade deal. Tuch signed an eight-year contract, with an AAV of $10.5 million, before being traded to Washington for the signing rights to David Kampf and a 2027 third-round pick.

While the 30-year-old is coming off an incredible season, helping the Sabres reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in 15 years, many believe that the Capitals gave up a little too much to acquire Tuch. However, there might be a method to general manager Chris Patrick’s madness.

On Thursday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton explain why the Caps overspending on Tuch was due to the team being frugal with its assets.

Tyler Yaremchuk:  I’m fine with the signing. The other side of it is you pay him $10.5 million…you look at the prices on the trade market. Granted, it’s Washington who paid the crazy price for Jordan Kyrou, but if you’re a team right now and you kinda look at these two moves as examples and it’s like, “Okay, if I wanted to get the 28-year-old, 30-plus goal guy, it’s gonna cost me a young roster forward, a first-round pick, a mid-first-round pick at that, and one of my best prospects. Or I can get the 30-year-old., 30-goal scorer, and the contract might not age well, but I can keep three quality future assets in my organization.” So, you gotta spend a bit more. You gotta take a bit more risk, but then you get to hold onto your assets.

There’s no other free agent like Alex Tuch. So, this conversation is kind of done, but I can understand why Washington paid up for a guy like this because, one, they moved all their assets. They don’t have an option to go out on the trade market and make another Kyrou-level splash. But this is gonna be, as we talk about the market going forward and into future summers, the reason you overpay on the trade or on the free agent market and take some risk…I can understand why teams with a bunch of cap space aren’t afraid to throw an extra $1 million at a guy.

Carter Hutton: You look at them moving a third out to get Tuch. Like, what’s a third? A third-round pick is a lottery pick. Like, you don’t even know what’s gonna come of that…If you’re giving up a top-10 pick in the NHL, those are certified guys that are gonna come in and step in and play in your lineup. I think for Alex Tuch, the change of scenery going there and you look at some of the younger talent that the Washington Capitals have, there’s a good future.

I think Washington immediately becomes another threat to be a very competitive team next year. Adding Tuch…this is a very good team now and a dangerous team and a team in the metro that you don’t wanna mess with.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…