‘We have a lot of young talent that’s ready to explode’: Benson on how Sabres will handle Tuch’s departure

Despite a rather inauspicious offseason, one member of the Buffalo Sabres is optimistic about the upcoming season.

The Sabres are coming off a memorable run in the 2025-26 campaign. After a wild rally in the final few months of the season, the team ended up clinching a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in 15 years, winning the Atlantic Division championship to boot. Even while Buffalo didn’t reach the ultimate goal, having lost to the Montreal Canadiens in the second round, there’s a level of excitement around the Western New York team that hasn’t been seen in a long time.

However, the Sabres will look a little different next season. The team lost both Luke Schenn (Vancouver Canucks) and Josh Dunne (Washington Capitals). On top of that, star forward Alex Tuch was part of a sign-and-trade deal with the Capitals, leaving a sizeable gap in Buffalo’s top six.

On Wednesday’s edition of Morning Cuppa Hockey, Benson mentioned that, while losing Tuch is hard for a variety of reasons, the Sabres have a solid young core that can fill the void left behind for the 2026-27 season and beyond.

Zach Benson: Obviously, you’re super happy for him. You obviously got paid a lot of money, so I’m super happy for him first of all. But [Tuch] leaves a hole in the leadership group. I mean, he was such a big piece of that, and he’s a guy that’s been around a long time. He’s kind of helped bring that Sabre organization back, and he’s a big reason why we were kind of in the postseason. So, definitely a big hole. But I mean, you look at our other young guys. You got Helenius, Ostlund, Kulich coming back. So you know, we have a lot of young talent that is ready to kind of explode…those guys can kind of help fill that role, but definitely a big, big hole to fill.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…