Brother of Golden Knights’ Tuch following in his footsteps — with one exception

By Justin Emerson

Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020 | 2 a.m.

BOSTON — Alex Tuch was trying to gain entry into Boston University’s Agannis Arena for practice last week but had trouble finding an unlocked door. An assistant coach he tracked down to let him in jokingly told the Golden Knights’ forward not to blow the place up.

“I said no promises,” Tuch quipped. “I did play at BC.”

Tuch played two years down the road at rival Boston College, making last week’s game against the Boston Bruins a homecoming of sorts. The Golden Knights practiced at the home of his college rival, a sheet of ice that won’t have to wait long for another Tuch to skate on it.

Luke Tuch, Alex’s brother and a member of the under-18 U.S. national team, will be a freshman at Boston University in the fall. Luke is also a prospect in the 2020 NHL Draft.

The brothers, who are six years apart, are taking different paths in their hockey development with the hope of a similar result of competing in the NHL. Alex Tuch playing at Boston College planted the seed for Luke to attend Boston University. The younger Tuch fell in love with Boston, and when Boston University came recruiting, it wasn’t a hard sell.

“He razzed me quite a bit, but it’s all fun,” Luke Tuch said of his college decision. “I go to Alex for a lot of advice. He’s gone through the same thing I’m going through right now, and I think it motivates me a lot seeing where he is and the success he’d had early in his career, and I think I want to be in the same spot he is right now.”

When Alex Tuch got to Agannis Arena for his practice, he made sure to let his brother know about it. “We have to play nice,” he said. “I did send him a Snapchat with something funny on it, but I won’t say what.”

BC Eagle great

Alex Tuch, who was part of Boston College’s most recent Frozen Four team in 2015, earned a spot on a school display celebrating its former athletes who reached the highest ranks of their respective sports. It’s a respectably sized wall of NBA and WNBA players, but the NHL wall is twice as large. And there near the bottom is Tuch, who turned pro and joined the Minnesota Wild after the 2016 season.

Tuch is an alumnus of a storied program, one whose members include three Hobey Baker winners for the nation’s top college player, two 1,000-point players in the NHL and countless All-Stars. Still, Jerry York, a Hockey Hall of Famer who has coached at Boston College for 26 years, recalls Tuch fondly.

“He certainly had probably a lot of options to go to schools, so we felt genuinely excited when he came,” York said. “He was just tapping his potential when he was here.”

What York remembers from Tuch’s time as an Eagle was a menacing power winger with unexpected speed for a 6-foot-4, 220-pounder, or the same playing style Golden Knights fans have grown accustomed to seeing for three seasons.

It was clear from early on that the combination of size and speed was the start of something special. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute offered Tuch his first scholarship when he was just 14, and by the time he was 16, he was already in the national team development program. It’s same program Luke Tuch plays for.

Younger brother has bright future

Luke Tuch wouldn’t be considered a draft prospect without high-end talent. Multiple mock drafts have him pegged as a second-round pick this year.

While the younger Tuch is his own player, he is similar to his NHL-playing brother, especially when it comes to their non-physical attributes.

“They’re not somebody that we don’t know,” national team assistant coach Nick Fohr said of coaching siblings. “We have a knowledge base of what they are, how they are; we know that this specific kid is going to come in and he’s got a chance to be real successful because he has Attribute A, B, C or D, whatever those are. ... That’s why we end up with siblings here too.”

While the Tuch brothers are similarly big-bodied players, Fohr said Alex relied more on skill and deceptive speed for a player his size, while Luke likes to play the physical game more than his brother did.

“He looks up to (Alex) big-time,” Fohr said. “He spends as much time as he can with Alex and learning how to be a pro and how to train and how to eat and all that type of stuff. He’s really learning a lot from his older brother.”

Luke Tuch wants to follow the same path as his brother — with one small difference. Alex Tuch grew up in New York, went off to play for the U.S. national team, was a first-round draft selection, played collegiately in Boston and became an NHL player.

“I would have loved for him to go to Boston College but it was his decision,” Alex said. “He wanted to take a different path and I was OK that. I understand that it was to BU. I wasn’t happy that it was to BU, but … honestly for his development in hockey, I wouldn’t have wanted him to go anywhere else.”

Justin Emerson can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Justin on Twitter at twitter.com/@j15emerson.