Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - As the Buffalo Sabres season comes to an end, attention quickly turns to what the team will look like next year and what names will or won't be back with the team.
The biggest question mark heading into the offseason remains Alex Tuch.
Tuch, the key return piece in the 2021 Jack Eichel trade, scored 33 goals and had 66 points for the Sabres this season. He added another four goals and seven points in the playoffs against Boston before being shut out in the series against Montreal.
He will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
"If you go back to last summer we had talks with (former Sabres General Manager) Kevyn Adams and his management staff that didn't progress how we wanted them to," Tuch said Wednesday. "We decided to hold off and go through the season a little more and then maybe pick things back up."
Adams would be fired mid-season, changing the dynamic of contract talks.
"When (Sabres General Manager) Jarmo (Kekalainen) stepped in we had some good talks, then they stalled out a little bit... At a point where we were starting to make the playoff push I decided that it was in my best interest and the best interest for the team in general to put anything like that on hold until after the season was over," Tuch said.
Now with the season over, there's a little over a month for the team to come to a deal or make another decision. Tuch did say that Sabres Kekalainen told him that he wants to have him back during his exit interview.
"I’m going to do whatever is best for myself and my family," Tuch said. "Obviously in the next month or so, I’m going to have to make some decisions."
