The Buffalo Sabres Can't Afford For Jeff Skinner To Get Any Better
Jeff Skinner was traded this summer for practically nothing. The Carolina Hurricanes brought back Cliff Pu, a 2nd round pick in 2019 and a 3rd round pick in 2020. For a 26-year-old guy who had already put up 30 goals multiple times in his career, getting a couple of draft picks and not even the Sabres’ top prospect in return says that the Hurricanes had just given up on the guy. And it’s not like they were alone. For some reason or another, Jeff Skinner just hasn’t really moved the needle much throughout his career. Maybe it’s because he had a few seasons where he was injured and didn’t really produce. Maybe it’s because he was stuck playing on a god awful Carolina team. Whatever the reason was, Jeff Skinner was traded to Buffalo for nothing and the Hurricanes are probably regretting that decision right now. But also regretting that decision will be the Buffalo Sabres unless Jeff Skinner can slow it down a little bit here. Because after tossing 14 pucks in the back of the net through 20 games this year, Skinner is looking to get capital ‘p’ Paid this offseason.
Now Jeremy White isn’t a Bob McKenzie or anything like that so who knows how accurate these numbers are. And obviously Jeff Skinner’s agent isn’t going to go into any negotiations starting off by underselling his client and trying to negotiate up in contract. You have to start around 9-9.5 if you want to ultimately end up somewhere in the $8M range. But holy fuck that’s a lot of coin for a guy who was practically just thrown away by Carolina. Can Buffalo make it happen with their current cap situation? It would be tough because most of Jason Pominville’s contract would have to go to Skinner and then you’d still have to figure out a way to pay guys like Nathan Beaulieu, Jake McCabe and Casey Mittelstadt when their contracts are up without too many other players coming off the books before then. Having to shell out $9-9.5M to Skinner would mean at least one of those guys would have to go and at least one of them would have to take a bridge deal. You already have $10M locked up with Eichel so giving Skinner that contract essentially puts the Sabres in the same position as Edmonton right now. (Only difference is they already have a guy like Rasmus Ristolainen signed long term and Dahlin is still on his ELC until July 1, 2021).
But the fact of the matter is that Jeff Skinner is currently on pace for a 50-goal season. And if somehow he doesn’t slow up, then 50 goals in the NHL gets you $9 million. So unless the Buffalo Sabres want to be completely strapped for cash the next 5-8 years, they probably wouldn’t mind if Jeff Skinner hits a bit of a dry spell here. Maybe take Thanksgiving-Christmas off, ease his way back into things around the new year and then really turn it back on for the playoff push in February/March. End the season with his standard 30-35 goals, sign for $7M in the offseason and give Buffalo some wiggle room to work with. But $9-9.5?