NHL insiders Pierre LeBrun and Chris Johnston have been running a series at The Athletic where they play matchmaker. LeBrun and Johnston pair prime trade candidates with teams they think would be a good fit.

In the third edition of this series, LeBrun matched Buffalo Sabres right winger Alex Tuch with the Los Angeles Kings.

Tuch is in the final year of his seven-year, $33.25-million contract. Furthermore, the 29-year-old earns $4.75 million against the salary cap and holds a five-team no-trade clause in his contract for this season.

With that, he's a pending UFA and will require a new contract by the end of the campaign.

The Kings' latest pair of victories over the Minnesota Wild puts them back into a playoff spot. They hold the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference, tied on points with the Anaheim Ducks and the Seattle Kraken.

Wins are critical as the standings are ever so tight, and now Los Angeles will be without captain Anze Kopitar and right winger Joel Armia at least for a short while.

"Los Angeles is hanging on in the playoff race in the West despite struggling offensively," LeBrun wrote. "Tuch would be an ideal boost on the right side behind first-liner Adrian Kempe. And the Kings have ample cap room."

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Adding Tuch to the lineup would be a big boost for Jim Hiller's team, especially when the Kings' lack of scoring is taken into consideration.

Los Angeles is bottom three in the NHL when it comes to scoring goals. In 41 games, they've scored 109 goals. Only the St. Louis Blues and the Kraken have fewer, with 107 each.

Tuch has 12 goals and 32 points this season for Buffalo. With those numbers plugged into the Kings' roster, he'd instantly have the third-most goals on the team, and second on the team in points.

However, Tuch's availability to be dealt all lies on the shoulders of Sabres GM Jarmo Kekalainen. Since Tuch is a pending UFA, Kekalainen may feel like he should trade him away for assets ahead of the trade deadline.

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But there is the alternate situation in which the Sabres elect to keep Tuch on the roster. After all, Buffalo ended 2025 with a 10-game winning streak and has climbed the Eastern Conference standings. 

With that run, they're just three points outside a playoff spot. Buffalo's brass won't see much sense in dealing Tuch if the team is in a playoff race, especially since they've been searching for a post-season appearance since 2011.

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