Sabres get great news on Alex Tuch trade rumors before deadline

The Alex Tuch question for the Buffalo Sabres is coming closer to an answer.

The NHL trade deadline is Friday. As of late Tuesday night, ESPN's Emily Kaplan seemed to suggest that whether Tuch will get traded or not has been decided.

"I also don't expect Tuch to be on the move," Kaplan wrote in a new article.

Tuch has been looming for the Sabres this whole time. He's a talented, veteran winger who is also in the last year of his contract.

A rebuilding Buffalo team would clearly look to sell him. Instead, though, the Sabres are red hot.

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That makes it a lot harder to get rid of Tuch, and that meant the Sabres pivoted to contract extension talks. Apparently, those haven't gone too well, and so Buffalo still has had to consider whether moving Tuch is best for the future anyway.

Turns out, they're going to try and stand firm, per Kaplan.

"New GM Jarmo Kekalainen has had open dialogue with Tuch's representative, Brian Bartlett," Kaplan writes. "But even with extra time to talk over the Olympic break, they aren't aligned on what a new contract would look like. I don't expect them to bridge the gap before the trade deadline... They'll punt the decision to the summer."

Whether Tuch sticks around longer term or not could depend on just how well the Sabres do in the playoffs, with them primed to end their 14-year postseason drought.

Tuch has the potential to be a big piece of what Buffalo accomplishes at the end of the season, too, given his solid experience in big games.

The Sabres can revisit his contract after the season. For now, it appears Tuch is staying put, and fans in Buffalo will be glad to hear that.

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