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Carolina Hurricanes Jeff Skinner on Trading Block

By Diana Driscoll

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Rumors of trades during the offseason run rampant. Some are farfetched, while others are more believable. When I heard that the Carolina Hurricanes were shopping the super smooth skating forward Jeff Skinner I happened to believe it.

Why?

That’s one reason. But another is the Canes are in dire need of players that could put up offense and, if traded, Skinner may be able to get a decent return (even though the Canes may have to take a lower-than-normal deal to get it done based on his recent numbers and cap hit).

Skinner is coming off his worst season, only scoring 18 goals and 31 points in 77 games. He is also carrying a cap hit of $5.725 million through the 2018-19 season. With Carolina’s current state, these are decent reasons to trade him.

It’s frustrating for him and Hurricanes fans because they have seen what he can do. Before he was 22 years old, Skinner was a two-time 30-goal scorer. Only 16 other players have been able to complete that feat over the past 20 years, including teammate Eric Staal, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Toews, Phil Kessel, and Rick Nash (all elite scorers).

That’s impressive and may be why some teams have offered Carolina’s general manager Ron Francis some packages, but none have met his expectations. Francis is not going to give up Skinner for nothing and why should he.

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I do understand why the team is shopping Skinner, but there are some reasons to keep him around.

Skinner is 23 years old, meaning he has many good years ahead of him. Yes, he had a down year (but so did his entire team) and has had some concussion problems in the past (that’s never good) but the Hurricanes are a team that has few forwards that can score consistently. Why would you want to get rid of a guy like Skinner? It would thin out their offense even more, which would only decrease the Canes’ goals-per-game average. The team finished 27th in the League this past season in that statistic with 2.23.

Sure, by trading Skinner Carolina would get other players (prospects or picks) in return. But if a player like Skinner, with his talent and speed, struggled to score, do you think the players the team gets in return would have an immediate impact? I don’t. But that’s mostly because I don’t think Skinner is the problem in Carolina.

In my mind, it is a little premature to let him go. He wasn’t the only disappointment on the Hurricanes roster, so why unload him when he is young and has raw talent that could help the team in the future. The entire team needs to improve its game. And maybe adding higher-caliber players or fresh faces (from the farm systems) will help Skinner regain his form this season.

Look, it’s August. The Hurricanes have been “shopping” him for more than a month. Clearly, nothing has piqued the interest of Francis. I don’t believe from now until training camp that a magical, can’t-miss-out-on deal is going to be presented to the Hurricanes (but who knows; stranger things have happened).

The worst thing Francis could do is settle. He knows what he has in Skinner and if he gives him away for nothing, it will come back to haunt him. So, I say hang on to the kid for now; see how he does in the beginning of the season because I don’t believe that this summer will be the only opportunity to unload him (if necessary).

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