The Buffalo Sabres were the talk of the NHL season, and now they are going to be the talk of the offseason, particularly whether or not they will be able to keep Alex Tuch, who right now is the best player set to be a free agent. He certainly looks like he will be able to command a contract with an AAV between $10 to $11 million but the Sabres might not need to go that high with the advantage of being the only team able to offer him an eight-year contract.
Under the CBA, the original team of players set to be free agents can offer as much as an eight-year contract, but if they reach free agency, the maximum teams trying to sign that free agent can offer in term is seven years. This was put in place as a way to give teams a slight advantage if they really want to keep one of their top players.
This is the final offseason that teams are able to offer eight-year deals as the new CBA, which begins in September, has the maximum contract length set to seven years for the original team and six years for teams signing outside free agents.
Why does this matter for the Buffalo Sabres and Alex Tuch?
It is tough to say exactly what the biggest AAV that Alex Tuch could get in free agency this summer is, as he is the top free agent, and with a salary cap, making a big jump, teams have money to spend.
For the sake of the argument, let's say the highest AAV is set at $10.625, which is what Adrian Kempe signed with the LA Kings last year. That means that the maximum Tuch could make with a free agent contract is $74.38 million.
Now, all indications are that the Sabres have not been willing to come up to that AAV. He probably would have signed if they were, and this is not even a discussion. However, that eighth year does give the Sabres some flexibility as they could take that total $74.38 million and stretch it out over eight years to an AAV of $9.3 million.
Even at $9.3 million, that is going to take up a large chunk of the roughly $12 million in cap space the Sabres currently have. They are undoubtedly going to have to move some salary if they want to re-sign Tuch, along with Zach Benson, Peyton Krebs, and Beck Malenstyn, to name a few free agents.
However, that extra $1.4 million gives the Sabres more room to operate and doesn't require them to shed as much off their salary cap. There is certainly the issue of dealing with a cap hit of $9.3 million in Tuch's final season when he is 38 years old, but if the salary cap continues to rise the way it is expected to, that size cap hit will be a much smaller percentage of the overall salary cap and more manageable at that point.
This summer is shaping up to be one of the more consequential offseasons for the Buffalo Sabres. New general manager Jarmo Kekalainen is going to have to make some tough decisions, and whether he wants to mortgage some of the future to try to keep a team that reached the second round of the playoffs largely in place.
There is certainly a path to do it, and if the Sabres do retain Alex Tuch, which is far from being a guarantee, it would make sense for them to do so on an eight-year deal that allows them to spread out the cap hit and lower it for this season.
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