Where did things go wrong between the Buffalo Sabres and Alex Tuch?
DLLS Stars: Joe Yerdon, when asked about the Buffalo Sabres and Alex Tuch contract negotiations and how the home kid ended up not re-signing with Buffalo and signed with the Washington Capitals.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Host: “And a guy that I think we all thought was going to be their hometown kid, it sounds like, and I want to be in Buffalo. And you know, I, I’m such, I’m such a fan of Alex Tuch. I, these guys have heard me two years ago. I’m like, this dude’s up. He’s up in a year. He would fit in really well here in Dallas.
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Was it, I mean, he, I looked at his points per game, you know, during the regular season. He was just under nine. You know, and again, and then in the playoffs, he was around five or six, whatever, half a point per game. I went back and looked in Vegas. It was about the same thing in the playoffs.
So, what happened, or why did it go sideways? Was, was it just a dollar amount, or did they sour on him a little bit because maybe he wasn’t as good in playoffs as he was in the regular season?
Yerdon: “I think it goes back to a year ago when he was eligible to get extended. And he and Kevyn Adams talked, and Alex had a valuation in his mind of what he was worth. I don’t know if it was ultimately what he signed for, with you know, with I guess, with Buffalo, and then got traded to Washington, whatever.
But what he wanted was not something that Adams was comfortable with, and you know, because he was looking down the road and saying like, if we sign him for this much, what do we got left to pay, you know, X Y Z guys? And this is without knowing that Zach Benson was going to become, you know, a giant hero in the playoffs. But without knowing any of that stuff, but just knowing these guys are going to need contracts down the road.
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If we commit, I think around that time it was under 10, it was between nine and 10. I think maybe Alex maybe had asked for 10, and Kevin was not comfortable doing that because, you know, Tage Thompson‘s kind of artificially set the bar for forwards with, with his deal. Which, you know, that’s going to change as time goes on here, obviously, because he signed, he, he jumped at a, at a really good extension offer. And you know he’d be making $12 $13 million a year now if he were available.
But I, I think they weren’t able to come to an agreement, and Alex didn’t want to be talking about this stuff during the season. He said, ‘Let’s table it. Let’s let’s, let’s put a lid on this and let’s wait.’ Kevin gets fired. Jarmo (Kekalainen) comes in. They talked a little bit, and they said, ‘All right, let’s, you know, let’s get to the end of the year.’ They get to the end of the year, and it’s playoffs. It’s like, all right, one more chance to talk here. Let’s do this. Nothing yet. Okay, let’s. Okay, I guess we’re, we’ll wait till we’re done in the postseason.
And you know they had a couple of discussions. I think Buffalo did make an offer to him, but I don’t think it was, I don’t think it was the offer that he that he signed with that the Caps took on board because I think if Buffalo signs that contract, they’re, they’re making some really hard decisions already now to try to figure out what they’re going to do with their lineup and what they’re going to do moving ahead, but.
It’s unfortunate, and you know Alex sounded, reading his body language at the end of the season when asked about, you know, what the future holds for him. You could just tell he was so sore that he didn’t have it done last summer. To have it done and be done and be in Buffalo and be good because things can change. Attitudes can change, everything can change, family needs change. You know, for him, I think they’re just about to have their third kid. You know, wife didn’t want to, I don’t know if the wife was really excited about being in Buffalo. I mean, she’s from Vancouver, so I get it. You know, you get used to big cities and fun cities. You come to Buffalo; it’s a bit of a letdown, I understand.
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But, but you know, for Alex, great for him. Glad to see him get paid. He’s, he’s, he’s a gem of a guy. Great player, and happy he’s getting paid. But man, it’s, it’s a hard loss. It’s a hard loss for the room and a hard loss on the ice for the Sabres.”
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