Washington Capitals have new weapon in Alex Tuch

For the fourth time in his career, Alex Tuch is starting with a new NHL team—and the Washington Capitals have another weapon in their arsenal.

Tuch spent the last five seasons with the Buffalo Sabres, his boyhood team while growing up in the Syracuse area. The 6-foot-4 right wing was acquired by the Caps in an eight-year sign-and-trade deal in June worth $84 million, or $10.5 million annually, with forward David Kämpf and a 2027 third-round selection going the other way.

Originally drafted 18th overall by Minnesota in 2014, Tuch ultimately played just six games with the Wild before being dealt to Vegas before the 2017 NHL expansion draft. He helped the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Final as a rookie (against Washington, ironically), and scored 61 goals over four seasons in Nevada before joining Buffalo.

“Obviously, you want to lift the Cup every year, and 15 times (in all) if you could,” said Tuch to New York Hockey Journal in 2023. “We came a couple of wins shy my first year in the league.”

Back home in western New York, where he grew up next to the family of forward Tim Connolly, who himself went on to play in more than 700 NHL games, Tuch notched three 30-goal campaigns with Buffalo and helped the Sabres back to the playoffs last spring for the first time in a decade-and-a-half. He was one of the top NHL unrestricted free agents available this summer, thanks to his 448 points over 615 career NHL outings to date, and had hoped to stay with the Sabres—but it wasn't to be.

"We used him as a rental for our own team," said Buffalo general manager Jarmo Kekalainen at the time. "We made it clear to him that we wanted to sign him."  

Alex Tuch's role with Capitals

Now he's starting over with the Capitals, in what could be Alex Ovechkin's final NHL go-around at age 41. Tuch may be the heir apparent on the wing to The Great Eight, who's never scored less than 31 goals in a full NHL season—but with 220 NHL regular-season goals to his own credit, the 30-year-old Tuch should surely help to pick up any scoring slack in the nation's capital. 

Tuch could potentially supplant fellow Boston College alumnus Ryan Leonard, who's less proven at this level than Tuch, on the starboard side of Washington's second line, although Leonard did hit the 20-goal mark last season. 

The Daily Faceoff is projecting Tuch as Washington's top left wing, ahead of Ovechkin, to play alongside center Pierre-Luc Dubois and Tom Wilson. Whatever line he winds up on, with his size, speed and shot, Tuch will almost assuredly find a home on one of the Caps' top two power-play units.

Ovechkin and Wilson were the Caps' lone 30-goal scorers a year ago. Tuch could make it three this winter, starting this Friday against defending Southeast Division rival and Stanley Cup champion Carolina.