Three NHL Pending UFAs Who Are Set To Land Significant Raises
These three NHL pending unrestricted free agents should be getting nice paydays during the off-season.
Video Transcript
I would, you know, if I'm Jarmo Kekalainen, their GM, I go to Alex Tuch, and I kind of do the car dealer thing where I'm like, "What can I do to keep you in Buffalo?
Can I interest you in max term-" " but maybe nine?"
'Cause Alex Tuch's 29.
Yeah.
So he's not young.
Right, right, right.
If you could get him for a, a little less than 10, 'cause I mean, hey, cap is going up.
We all know that.
Sabres don't have a lot to do this summer, which is good.
most of their guys are locked into pretty reasonable contracts.
But just to be safe and thinking about the future and thinking about a team where, you know, they're most likely a playoff team this year, you wanna build on that.
Who knows how far they'll go this year?
But you wanna build, which means you wanna add.
And so if you could get Tuch for like nine, on a longterm deal, maybe that gets it done, where it's like, "We will give you all the security we can."
Mm-hmm.
"But we'd, we would just like that extra one million a year just in case."
Yeah.
I think the comparable they're gonna be looking at right now, Ryan, is Nick Schmaltz, and he signed, yesterday.
Oh, yeah.
Eight for eight.
Eight times eight.
For, you know, $8 million AAV.
Now- Oof Schmaltz is one year older.
Um- And he's the center.
Yeah.
R- you know, Tuch and Schmaltz, you know, I think Schmaltz has got 24 goals.
Tuch has got 28 goals, you know, roughly the same amount of points.
I actually think Tuch is the better player, and I think- Tuch, just because of his size, the, the power forward type of game that he plays, th- those guys aren't easy to find.
Yeah.
I, I would argue it's easier to find a Schmaltz than a, a Tuch- in terms of what you're looking at.
You know, and this is like w- what we're not talking about here is, you know, Tuch is from the area.
He loves Buffalo.
Yeah.
You know, we heard Kevin Adams saying that, you know, how hard it is to attract free agents.
Like they don't have- No palm trees palm trees.
You've got a guy in Tuch that grew up in that area around, you know- Noles Buffalo, Western New York area.
New Jersey.
Wants to be a Sabre.
You cannot let this guy go.
And- forget about the hometown discount.
You almost have to pay a little extra to keep him there, I think, just to kind of solidify what I o- I would say is a core player, um- in terms of leadership.
And again, if you've got a guy who wants to be there, you gotta give him, you know, you've, you've gotta give him some extras, Ryan, okay?
You, you've gotta say, "We're gonna tint your windows here, okay?"
"I got that car dealership game, all right?
You want-" Yeah. "
heated steering wheels?
All right, you got it, buddy."
