The status of negotiations between the Buffalo Sabres and winger Alex Tuch is unknown since last month’s report from the Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta that agents for the pending free agent paused negotiations on a new contract. That pause was in connection with the Sabres opening the season with three straight losses. While the club has righted the ship by earning points in eight of the last nine games (5-1-3), recent contract signings may become factors in whether the two sides can reach an accommodation on a new deal.
Last week, the Utah Mammoth signed 21-year-old forward Logan Cooley to an eight-year, $80 million contract ($10 million AAV) and the Colorado Avalanche locked up Martin Necas on an eight-year, $92 million contract extension ($11.5 million AAV). The 21-year-old Cooley scored 45 goals in his first two seasons with the Mammoth and is in the final year of his entry-level contract, while Necas – acquired from Carolina in the Mikko Rantanen deal last January, would have become an unrestricted free agent like Tuch next July.
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Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on his 32 Thoughts podcast last week indicated that these signings will have an obvious effect on the free agent market next season, which could have included Connor McDavid, Kirill Kaprizov, Kyle Connor, and Jack Eichel, but after those three and Necas have come off the board, the top three potential unrestricted free agents next July are currently Tuch, New York’s Artemi Panarin and Los Angeles Kings winger Adrian Kempe.
Friedman believes that Kempe and the Kings will get a deal done, but that the shrinking market has swung the leverage to the players in these situations, and that the clubs have to decide whether they will increase their offers or not. The Sabres reportedly had balked at an AAV of $10 million or more for the 29-year-old Syracuse, NY native, but the shrinking market could have the price going much higher than that.
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