A day after landing a significant top six piece in Jordan Kyrou via a trade with the St. Louis Blues, the Caps doubled down in a big way on Wednesday when they engineered a sign-and-trade swap with the Buffalo Sabres to land the biggest fish among the forward group in this summer’s free agent market, winger Alex Tuch.
Tuch, who turned 30 last month, signs an eight-year contract extension with the Sabres and becomes a Capital upon signing the deal and the Caps sending center David Kampf – an impending unrestricted free agent – and a third-round choice in the 2027 Draft to Buffalo.
Originally drafted by Minnesota in the first round (18th overall) of the 2014 NHL Draft, Tuch was traded to Vegas after appearing in just six games with the Wild. An original member of the Golden Knights, Tuch spent the first four full seasons of his NHL career in Vegas, before moving on to Buffalo early in the 2021-22 season in the deal that sent Jack Eichel to Nevada.
A native of Syracuse, NY, Tuch broke out and established himself as a legitimate top six winger in Buffalo. Like Kyrou, he has authored three 30-goal seasons in the last four. There are 33 NHL players who have scored 30 or more goals in three of the last four seasons, and if Alex Ovechkin announces his return for a 22nd season in 2026-27, the Capitals will have three of them in Kyrou, Tuch and Ovechkin. The Caps captain has scored 30 or more goals in each of the last four seasons, one of eight players to hold that distinction.
Since the start of the 2022-23 season, Ovechkin’s 149 goals rank 14th in the NHL. With 127 goals over the same time frame, Tuch is tied for 33rd with Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel during that span. Kyrou isn’t far behind him with 122, ranking 38th.
For his career, Tuch has exactly 200 goals and he has added 248 assists for 448 points in 615 career contests.
Since the Nov. 4, 2021 trade that sent him to the Sabres, Tuch has tallied 139 goals, 44th most goals in the League across that span. A dozen of those goals came shorthanded, and Tuch is tied for third in the NHL in shorthanded goals since that landmark trade, trailing only Anaheim’s Chris Kreider and Florida’s Sam Reinhart (13 each). Tuch’s six shorthanded goals topped the circuit in 2024-25.
Tuch also played on Buffalo’s first unit power play, and he has 34 career power-play goals, 22 of which were scored during his five seasons with the Sabres. Tuch scored a career high of eight power-play goals in 2022-23.
Also like Kyrou, Tuch has drawn Selke Trophy support in each of the last two seasons. And while Kyrou placed 37th in Selke balloting in 2024-25 and improved to 26th last season, Tuch landed 15th in the voting in 2024-25 before nudging up a notch to 14th last season.
Tuch's penchant for takeaways may be helping drive some of the Selke notice. Over the last five seasons, Tuch has finished in the NHL’s top 23 in takeaways/60 every season; he was second among all League forwards in 2024-25 and fifth in ’23-24. Across the full five-season span, Tuch’s rate of 2.38 takeaways/60 ranks seventh among all NHL forwards (250 or more games played).
The addition of Tuch gives the Caps a whopping total of eight right-handed forwards, a figure that would increase to nine should Ovechkin opt to join the party.
