He's back on the ice, but not playing in games, and won't be until the calendar hits 2022, so new Buffalo Sabres winger Alex Tuch is making the most of his time.
Tuch is watching games to study coach Don Granato's system and to learn the tendencies of his future teammates. He's hanging around the dressing room, trying to get to know a new teammate or two every time he visits. He visited with the 11-Day Power Play hockey marathon at RiverWorks and is getting ready to transfer the work of his AT9 Foundation from Vegas to Buffalo, where it will continue the fight against pediatric cancer and other challenges in children's lives.
Call it round two of the Granato family rivalry Monday night in KeyBank Center.
And during Buffalo's Nov. 13 game against Toronto, the lifelong Sabres fan who grew up outside of Syracuse shared a night in a KeyBank Center suite with The Dominator.
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Tuch was born in 1996, in the middle of Dominik Hasek's nine-year reign with the Sabres when Hasek became the NHL's best goalie. So the player was able to rekindle a little fanboy.
"I was only a couple years old, but I still had a poster of him in my room growing up and he was one of the best," said a smiling Tuch. "He's just a really, really good guy and we were sitting through the first half of one of the periods and then halfway in he's like, 'All right, let's take a break and watch some of the game.'Â
"I loved that part because he's out of the game for 20 or so years now and he still just loves watching it, loves being a part of it and likes learning. It's a lot of fun to see a guy that's that far out of the game and he just still loves it. So that's something that really just shined for me."
Tuch shined on Monday as he joined his teammates on the ice for the first time, taking part in their morning skate in a non-contact role prior to the game against Seattle. He went through a bevy of team and individual drills, showing no issues with the shoulder he had surgically repaired in July.
"Just bring a little bit of positive energy in the room and today it was on the ice," Tuch said of his current goals. "Get to know guys and just try to find my way into the team. It's tough not being able to go into battle with them every night. Probably the hardest part, honestly. This team has been unbelievable bringing me in and making me one of the guys, that's for sure."
The Sabres say Tuch is still weeks away from a return to the lineup, but coach Don Granato admitted he's already taken a few moments to plot out forward lines in his head that include the winger acquired from Las Vegas in the Jack Eichel trade on Nov. 4.
"All I know is I want to go in and work hard and hopefully have chemistry with whomever I'm playing with because there's a lot of really good guys up and down this lineup," Tuch said. "So it's going to be fun when I first put on that jersey to play my first game, that's for sure."
Goalie coach Mike Bales doing some quick work with Alex Tuch. #Sabres pic.twitter.com/EQy3kPtl6z
— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) November 29, 2021
Tuch said he's already learned a lot about how the players are battling through every game to try to spark the franchise's turnaround.
"It's not just our team. It's not just the players in the locker room," Tuch said. "It goes players, coaching staff, management, all of our support staff here in the rink, and especially all the fans, so the entire city of Buffalo. We want to get as many people a part of our team as possible.
"And I know that once we continue to build and progress, this team is going to be selling out barns and playing in the playoffs down the road. We have high expectations for this group going forward."
Mittelstadt could return on road trip
Mittelstadt, out since the Oct. 14 season opener against Montreal due to an upper-body injury, skated fully Monday as he progressed out of his non-contact role. Tuesday's practice here and Wednesday's workout in Sunrise, Fla., will be crucial in determining his timeline. The Sabres play the Florida Panthers on Thursday night and play at Carolina on Saturday.
"There is potential that he can play on the road trip," Granato said. "And we will have two practices before our first game on the road in Florida. Those will give us a real good gauge as to the probability or not of that happening."
Jankowski joins club from Amerks
Quinn's 18 points through 14 games were third in the AHL entering Tuesday, and he has nine goals after totaling only two in 15 games last season.
Center Mark Jankowski had his AHL contract converted to an NHL deal by the Sabres on Sunday and joined the club for Monday's skate. Jankowski, 27, had five goals and 12 points in 13 games for Rochester. In 253 career NHL games with Pittsburgh and Calgary, he has 40 goals and 35 assists. He had four goals and seven assists in 45 games for the Penguins last season.
"That was my goal to get back to the NHL and I knew I was going to have to turn and play well in Rochester," Jankowski said. "I think going in there, the coaching staff put a lot of trust in me and let me go and play my game."
The Sabres sent Arttu Ruotsalainen back to Rochester to get more primary ice time after he totaled two goals and two assists in 16 games.
Said Granato: "We've spoken so often about developing our players and putting them in spots to succeed and become better, that seemed like a really easy, natural thing to do."
