Alex Tuch (Timothy T. Ludwig, USA TODAY Images)The NHL’s 2025-26 season is almost here, and it’s a great time on THN.com’s Buffalo Sabres site to continue our player-by-player series in which we analyze expectations for every Sabres player in 2025-26.
We’ve worked our way through Buffalo’s goalies and defensemen in this series. And in this file, we’re focusing on Sabres winger Alex Tuch, who needs to push his team into the playoffs and end Buffalo’s 14-year Stanley Cup playoff drought.
Tuch is entering a contract year, and at a pay rate of $4.75 million, he’s one of the better bargains in the league. But let’s explore below where Tuch is in his career now, and where he'll be playing by the end of next season.
Player Name: Alex Tuch
Position: Right Wing
Age: 29
2024-25 Key Statistics: 82 games, 36 goals, 67 points
2025-26 Salary: $4.75-million
2025-26 Expectations: Tuch has been a reliable NHLer for a while now. In two of his past three seasons, Tuch scored 36 goals and produced at least 59 points in all three of those seasons. You know what you’re getting from him now that he’s in his prime.
Tuch’s in the final season of his current contract, after which he’ll be a UFA. He only has a modified no-trade clause allowing him to veto a trade to one of five teams of his choosing, but if it gets to that point, success in Buffalo may not be in the cards for Tuch.
Tuch projects to be the Sabres' second-line winger, but he needs to produce enough offense to force Buffalo management to get his signature on a contract extension. Tuch’s size and soft hands are a skill set that isn’t growing on trees.
But like most, if not all of his Sabres teammates Tuch can quieten critics one way – by making the playoffs, and showing that Buffalo needs to give Tuch a major raise or risk losing him to a rival team when he gets the chance to leave as a free agent.
Tuch is a very capable power forward, but he needs to show he can be a key player on a legitimate playoff team. The Sabres have more than enough salsry-cap space to accommodate Tuch’s next contract, but if 2025-26 brings Buffalo more misery and much less joy, Tuch may not want to be part of the solution for the Sabres.
The pressure on Tuch & Co. will be tough on the Sabres, but failure can't be an option. They need to pull out all the stops to be a playoff team -- and if they can't do that, Tuch could be playing for a new team, perhaps sooner than later.