Alex Tuch will eventually become a captain for the Buffalo Sabres. But the franchise was right to snub him of the A in 2022-23.
I’m as big of a fan of Alex Tuch along with the rest of the Buffalo Sabres faithful, but I am not going to jump on the bandwagon of the many voices claiming he should have been one of the three captains for 2022-23. Tuch didn’t deserve it as much as Kyle Okposo, Zemgus Girgensons, or Rasmus Dahlin.
Why? Tuch faced little adversity throughout his NHL career. Sure, he was never given a chance to consistently play on the top lines with the Vegas Golden Knights, and they were so impressed with Tuch that they sent him to Buffalo in the Jack Eichel Trade. But really, what adversity has the former first round pick faced that superseded that of Okposo, Girgensons, and Dahlin?
What do the three captains all have in common? Several things, really. They have a combined total of ZERO playoff appearances as members of the Sabres. Each player has seen their respective NHL careers nearly fall to the wayside, and yet, here they are. Alex Tuch has faced none of this.
Buffalo Sabres were right to snub Tuch of team captaincy
Tuch played for a winning franchise over in Vegas. Sure, he was nothing more than another cog in the Golden Knights machine over in Sin City, and they discarded him when Eichel became available. But he never saw his team not play in the postseason until he came to Buffalo.
In 2016-17, Tuch appeared in six games for the Minnesota Wild, and even they saw a playoff berth. One season later, the expansion Golden Knights were in the Stanley Cup Final. The Knights didn’t fail to earn a playoff berth until after Tuch played half a season in Buffalo.
Speaking of which, Tuch’s half-season pales when compared to the 18 combined seasons we saw from Okposo, Dahlin, and Girgensons. And once again, none of those seasons resulted in a playoff berth. Heck, they never even resulted in winning seasons. Only a plethora of starts, stops, sputters, stalls, and resets.
The trio we have at captain in 2022-23 know what adversity looks like and how to respond to it. Dahlin was riding the bust label, Okposo looked finished, and Girgensons missed an entire season and nearly half of another because of injuries.
Tuch had his ailments and he’s faced his fair share of adversity. But overall, he never saw adversity when it came to winning or even bouncing back from bad seasons. No, he never received as much ice time as he deserved in Vegas, so there is some adversity there. But when you compare what Tuch has gone through to that of Girgensons, Okposo, and Dahlin, he is a distant fourth.
Tuch will be a great leader and he will be a team captain. But he is not the best choice to guide a young Buffalo Sabres team that will face a lot of adversity in 2022-23. In a way, they already have, thanks to poor predictions from many outlets.