This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Alex Tuch
Buffalo Sabres Right Wing
36 goals and an 18.4 per cent rate, and an on-ice goal differential of minus-14 to show for it.
| Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | PP | SH | GW | S | S% | TOI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | MIN | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0.0 | 10:42 |
| 2017-18 | VGK | 78 | 15 | 22 | 37 | +3 | 27 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 171 | 8.8 | 15:15 |
| 2018-19 | VGK | 74 | 20 | 32 | 52 | +13 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 180 | 11.1 | 16:44 |
| 2019-20 | VGK | 42 | 8 | 9 | 17 | -10 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 98 | 8.2 | 14:37 |
| 2020-21 | VGK | 55 | 18 | 15 | 33 | +16 | 28 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 142 | 12.7 | 16:50 |
| 2021-22 | BUF | 50 | 12 | 26 | 38 | -3 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 139 | 8.6 | 18:25 |
| 2022-23 | BUF | 74 | 36 | 43 | 79 | +14 | 20 | 8 | 1 | 9 | 218 | 16.5 | 19:09 |
| 2023-24 | BUF | 75 | 22 | 37 | 59 | +9 | 54 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 192 | 11.5 | 19:30 |
| 2024-25 | BUF | 82 | 36 | 31 | 67 | +16 | 47 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 196 | 18.4 | 19:15 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 536 | 167 | 215 | 382 | +55 | 206 | 27 | 9 | 35 | 1344 | 12.4 | 17:33 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
36 goals and 31 assists in 82 games for 67 points, plus-16, on 19:15 a night with 6 shorthanded goals — the most in the league.
48 per cent at five-on-five, the 31st percentile. His on-ice goals were 44-58 against an expected 41-45, which is the worst goal differential of any forward here: 14 goals against him on chances that were roughly even.
The Finesse Game
A 6-4 winger who skates like a much smaller one, and the combination is what makes him dangerous — he beats a defenceman wide and arrives at the net with the puck rather than having to shoot from where he was pushed.
41 per cent of his attempts come from inside 20 feet, so 18.4 per cent shooting is better supported by locations than most of the rates on this roster. The 6 shorthanded goals are the game in miniature: speed and reach turning a careless breakout into a goal.
The Physical Game
6-4 and 219, and he uses all of it. He forechecks hard, wins pucks on the wall against defencemen, and goes to the net front without being asked.
47 penalty minutes across 82 games. The durability is excellent — four consecutive full seasons in a style that punishes.
The Intangibles
Arrived in the Jack Eichel trade as the secondary piece and has become the most complete forward on the roster, and he has been open about how much playing at home means to him.
At 29, on a club that has now missed the playoffs in every season of his career here, he is the player a contender would pay most for and the one Buffalo would least like to move. That tension does not resolve quietly.
The numbers underneath
On the ice
Five-on-five, 2024-25 · 1,067 minutes
- Expected goals
- 48%
- 31st pct
- Shot attempts
- 49.4%
- 45th pct
share of the chances while he was out there
share of the attempts while he was out there
Goals while he was on the ice: 44 for, 58 against. Expected: 41.3 and 44.7.
The eye and the numbers
HindsightThe report ranks him 62 points above where the numbers do. It was written for a back edition, with the seasons that followed already known. Neither the agreement nor the gap says anything about the eye, and this report is excluded from the club-level comparison for the same reason. Why the numbers land there sets out the club he did it on, the minutes he played and the men he played them with.
Both bars are percentiles among the 357 skaters in this edition with a report and enough ice time. The report bar ranks the mean of the grades above — 82 on their own scale — against every other report's mean. The numbers bar ranks his share of expected goals. A gap is a disagreement about where he belongs, not two scales talking past each other.
Usual linemates
2024-25 · 1067 minutes at five-on-five
- John-Jason Peterkanow UTA32%
- Jason Zucker30%
Share of his five-on-five ice time spent alongside each player, measured from shift charts. Special teams are excluded: a power-play unit is not a line.
Why the numbers land there
Five-on-five, 2024-25
- The club
- BUF took 47.9% of the expected goals as a club. His own share is 48.0% — 0.1 above the club he did it on.
- The role
- First line, 1,067 minutes at five-on-five — 70th percentile in ice time.
With and without
| Teammate | Together | Him apart | Mate apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tage Thompson | 50.4% | 46.3% | 48.9% |
| Bowen Byram | 48.7% | 47.7% | 48.5% |
| Owen Power | 47.1% | 48.5% | 48.4% |
50.4% together, 46.3% for him apart and 48.9% for Thompson apart. He was worse away from Thompson, who was no better away from him — he needed that pairing more than Thompson did.
Expected-goal share while both were on the ice, and for each man in the minutes he played without the other. Apart is the pair subtracted from his own totals. It does not settle who was carrying whom — apart from each other, both were still playing with somebody — but it does say whether the share travelled when the pairing broke up.
Where he shoots from
goal on goal missed
315 unblocked shots in 2024-25, 39 of them goals. His median goal came from 13 feet. 41% of his shots came from inside twenty feet, 17% from beyond forty.