As the last-place Buffalo Sabres look to find their way after firing general manager Kevyn Adams earlier this week, veteran winger Alex Tuch admits the players need to take some responsibility for the mid-season change in the front office.
“It’s always tough when you go through a change like that,” Tuch told Bill Hoppe of the Times Herald on Wednesday. “I think it’s something that we don’t take lightly is that it’s on us. We’re a big reason why a man lost his job. We weren’t getting the results that needed to happen, and we feel terrible about that.
“We need to be better in this locker room. Kevyn was an awesome person. I owe him a lot. He brought me into this organization. [I’ll] always be grateful to him and every opportunity he’s given me.”
Despite being on a season-best three-game win streak, the Sabres sit last in the Eastern Conference with a 14-14-4 record. Buffalo hasn’t qualified for the playoffs in an NHL-record 14 seasons.
“Felt like I let my GM down, that I didn’t get the job done,” head coach Lindy Ruff told the media on Wednesday following the Adams’ firing.
The 29-year-old Tuch has recorded 11 goals and 17 assists over 31 games with the Sabres in 2025-26, his fifth season in Buffalo after joining the franchise in 2021-22 following a four-year run with the Vegas Golden Knights.
Tuch is in the last season of a seven-year, $33.25 million contract and is scheduled to become a free agent this summer. The former 18th-overall draft pick of the Minnesota Wild is expected to get a significant pay bump in his next contract.
Jarmo Kekalainen, 59, took over GM duties from Adams earlier this week and made it clear he expects the Sabres to compete for a playoff spot this season.
Kekalainen, who served as the general manager of the Columbus Blue Jackets for more than a decade before joining the Sabres as a senior advisor in May, also announced his intention to keep Tuch in Buffalo.
“I’ll take charge of that situation,” Kekalainen said. “We appreciate him, we like him. We want to get him signed.”
A native of Syracuse, N.Y., Tuch is one of the few bright spots on the Sabres’ roster, especially after producing two 36-goal campaigns in the previous three seasons.
“I think Jarmo was in somewhat of the negotiations before, so he’s familiar with what was going on,” Tuch said. “Just going to let my agent handle it, and I stay out of it.”
Tuch has scored 178 goals and 232 assists over 567 career games with the Wild, Golden Knight and Sabres. He’s tallied 19 goals and 14 assists over 66 playoff games, helping Vegas reach the Stanley Cup Final during their expansion season in 2017-18.
Buffalo hosts the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night at KeyBank Center.