Alex Tuch wants eight figures. That pursuit has been the story all season and it’s one of the first stark examples of the evolving salary landscape as the NHL’s salary cap enters an explosive growth phase. The natural question that’s spawned from that: is he worth it?A quick look through the current crop of players making $10 million at the start of the 2025-26 season led to a very quick and pointed no. There still weren’t many of them last season and the group that does hit the mark remain pretty special — the best of the best. Sure, many are legacy contracts, but even recent deals suggest the type of player this type of money is still reserved for. If Mitch Marner and Mikko Rantanen are getting $12 million, is Tuch really only $2 million worse? He’s just simply not on that level. Frankly, he isn’t even close.Then the Adrian Kempe deal happened. $10.6 million for the next eight years for a guy who is absolutely on the same level as Tuch. And that’s where things get interesting.Suddenly Tuch has a very valid argument to make $10 million in the current NHL market. Combine that with Tuch having been severely underpaid for the last seven years and it makes sense why he would shoot for the stars on his next deal. He’s earned that right, and AFP Analytics projects he’ll likely get his wish with a forecast of $10.1 million per year on a seven-year deal.Whether a team will pay Tuch $10 million and whether a team should are completely different considerations, though, both of which depend on the team in question.The teams that can probably afford to give Tuch that deal are also unlikely to be teams that can extract $10 million of value out of Tuch; they’d be paying him to be a driver when he’s probably more of an elite sidekick. On the other hand, the teams that can extract $10 million of value out of Tuch by slotting him appropriately (Edmonton comes to mind here) probably don’t have the space to fit what would be a luxury deal. Finding the equilibrium between those two thoughts for the perfect fit isn’t easy.