Sabres winger Alex Tuch has been involved in plenty of trade speculation lately with teams believed to be calling Buffalo to see if they might consider moving him. However, if he has his way, he won’t be going anywhere. Tuch told Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News that he remains “heavily committed to this organization” and still hopes to be with the team past the upcoming trade deadline. The 28-year-old has 19 goals and 24 assists in 54 games this season on Buffalo’s top line and is only two years removed from a 79-point campaign. He’s one of their better bargains at a $4.75MM price tag which means that if the Sabres do decide to move him, they’ll be in line to land a significant return for his services. But it doesn’t sound like that’s the direction that Tuch would like to see things go.
More from the Atlantic:
- Panthers winger Matthew Tkachuk won’t play against Seattle due to a lower-body injury. Head coach Paul Maurice told reporters including George Richards of Florida Hockey Now (Twitter link) that he will be assessed by Florida’s medical staff in the coming days to get a sense of how long he might be out for. ESPN’s John Buccigross adds (Twitter link) that the early sense is that Tkachuk could be out for a while. He suffered the injury playing at the 4 Nations Face-Off and wasn’t able to play much in the championship game on Thursday, logging less than seven minutes of ice time with his last shift coming late in the second period.
- The Canadiens have had discussions with the agents of pending UFAs David Savard and Joel Armia, reports Guillaume Lefrancois of La Presse. Savard has been in trade speculation going back to last season with teams often looking to add size and grit on their back end for a playoff run and while his ice time is down this season (he has a 17:46 ATOI), there will be teams interested in him as a third-pairing piece if a new deal can’t be reached. Armia, meanwhile, cleared waivers at the beginning of last season but bounced back to record 17 goals last year and is on pace to set a new career high in points this season while being one of the most-used forwards shorthanded league-wide.
- One pending UFA in Montreal who hasn’t had discussions with the Canadiens about a new deal is center Christian Dvorak, relays Richard Labbe of La Presse. Dvorak has struggled offensively the past two years and has just 17 points in 56 games so far this season, hardly a great return on a $4.45MM price tag. He’s winning over 57% of his faceoffs, however, which could draw some interest trade-wise as well. Notably, Montreal only has one salary retention slot remaining to use between Dvorak, Savard, Armia, or even Jake Evans if the two sides can’t reach an agreement on an extension before March 7th.
It’s a shame that Tkachuk will miss time because of that stupid, Overhyped exhibition, Especially now that the Panthers are in a tight playoff race, And battling for home ice.
You are in the minority there
The “exhibition” you speak of was more entertaining than 30 games of regular NHL season games.
That “overhyped” exhibition drew 9.6 million viewers on Thursday night on a cable TV station. Chew on that for a moment.
And 16 million overall if you add Canadas numbers
Meaningless exhibition!
^^^^ STUPID COMMENT
Factual comment.
Hey Kesler, are the Olympics meaningless?
Absolutely. It’s just another flag waving snooze fest.
OK fair enough. I understand.
Sabres don’t need significant returns of prospects/picks! They need actually good players now and not 3-5 years down the road!
If you are making a trade,Get guys who are veterans with a bit of tenacity to them.I am not saying building a team of goons but guys who are tough to play against.The Sabres don’t need more young guys who don’t know what it takes to win.Then and only then,the culture will change as guys will know what it takes each night to be a competitve team for a whole game.Those guys would not lose 2 goal leads.
Knowing that M.Tkachuk was playing injured and may not be able to play a full game, I’ll never understand why the Team USA coaching staff sat Kyle Conner in place of Nelson or Kreider when you knew there would be a chance you’d need someone to jump into that top line role.
Kesler, the 4 Nations event was worth it just to watch you babble for weeks in advance of it, during it, and now after the final game has been played. Watching you attempt to convince yourself that it was meaningless is, like most of your posting, a clinic in amusing emptiness. Full arenas, massive viewership, engaged fans, and the best players in the world going all out hardly puts the event in the meaningless exhibition category. But do what you do best and continue screaming into a void. It seems that, other than a few other lost souls, the only person who agrees with you is Wilf Paiement, the goof you used to be around here until you pulled that name changing caper that no one except pretty much everyone caught on to after about one post.