Major development just changed everything in the last minutes
Elliotte Friedman dropped a quiet bomb on the FAN Hockey Show, saying he suspects Alex Tuch is going to re-sign with the Buffalo Sabres.
The timing matters. Buffalo hosts Montreal tonight in Game 7, and the man Friedman just tied to a new deal has gone ice cold at the worst possible moment.
Tuch sits at zero points in his last five playoff games. He's a -8 over that stretch. The Sabres need him to wake up before the puck drops.
His full postseason line tells a similar story: 4 goals, 3 assists in 12 games, with two of those goals being game-winners. Useful, just not dominant.
Compare that to his regular season. Tuch finished 33-33-66 in 79 games, a plus-24, with 7 power play goals and 3 shorthanded markers. That's the version Buffalo needs back.
He's playing on a $4,750,000 cap hit. Friedman's suspicion lines up with a player who has built real roots in Western New York, even with the team flailing for years.
What a Tuch extension signals about Kekalainen's offseason plan
GM Jarmo Kekalainen pulling Tuch off the open market would be his biggest call yet. The Sabres are 50-23-9, fourth overall, and finally relevant in May. Walking him is unthinkable.
Head coach Lindy Ruff leaned on Tuch all year, including a +1 rating across 12 playoff appearances. He's a culture piece, not a rental.
The opponent makes this messier. Montreal pushed Buffalo to a deciding game, including a 6-3 spanking on home ice in Game 5. That's a result that lingers.
Buffalo answered with an 8-3 blowout in Game 6 on the road. Now it all funnels into one night, with Friedman's contract hint hanging over the building.
Here's the rhetorical question every Sabres fan should be asking. If Tuch lays an egg in Game 7, does Kekalainen still throw long-term money at a 30-year-old winger?
The reporting suggests yes. The eye test over the last week suggests think harder. And that's the tension that doesn't get resolved until the offseason actually starts.
If you're Kekalainen, you don't need Tuch to be the hero tonight. You just need him to remind you why you were going to pay him in the first place.
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LIVE
MAY 18, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Zachary Bolduc | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Phillip Danault | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Greenway | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kaiden Guhle | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Beck Malenstyn | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ryan McLeod | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Owen Power | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mattias Samuelsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nick Suzuki | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Alexandre Texier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Zach Benson | - | - | - | |
| Bowen Byram | - | - | - | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | - | - | |
| Cole Caufield | - | - | - | |
| Kirby Dach | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Demidov | - | - | - | |
| Josh Doan | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||