The Buffalo Sabres have traded for Carolina Hurricanes forward Jeff Skinner. They didn’t pay that high of a price and just made a heck of a statement.
Times are changing with the Buffalo Sabres. Not satisfied about how their rebuild has been going, they’ve decided to acquire forward Jeff Skinner from the Carolina Hurricanes. In exchange, they will be giving up forward Cliff Pu, a 2019 second-round pick, and third round and sixth round picks in 2020.
On paper, this trade might seem a bit baffling for two reasons. First of all, why in the world are the Sabres trading for Skinner, who has merely one year left on his contract before becoming a free agent?
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There are two ways of looking at this trade, from Buffalo’s perspective. They could be interested in signing him to an extension. This would make sense, given the Sabres’ lack of quality wings. Part of a successful rebuild includes surrounding your best centers with talented wings. Skinner will be the best wing Jack Eichel has played with in the NHL. The reverse is true as well.
Also, the Sabres might be thinking outside the box a little bit. Let’s say they don’t extend Skinner by February. If the Sabres play him regularly with Eichel, that’s a pretty good way of inflating his trade value.
Buffalo already has three first round picks in 2019 (assuming something unforeseen doesn’t happen with the St. Louis Blues). There’s a good chance they’ll have four by the end of the NHL trade deadline.
The second reason this trade might seem baffling is why did the Hurricanes not get much for Skinner? Perhaps his no-movement clause had something to do with this. But still, this is a sub-optimal return for Skinner, to say the least.
Say what you want about him, he’s a guy who can consistently score goals. Skinner has at least 20 goals in each of his last three seasons. He’s topped 30 in one of those seasons (2016-17). This is despite not getting much playing time with good centers.
Playing with Eichel should be beneficial for Skinner, as it will likely cause his value to skyrocket. And, obviously, this is a good thing for the Sabres too. Eichel’s got to be ecstatic about playing with someone like Skinner too.
Both teams did not make the playoffs last season. In fact, the Hurricanes and Sabres each have significant playoff droughts. The former hasn’t made the postseason since 2009-10 while the latter hasn’t done so since the 2010-11 season.