The Sabres have added to their forward group, announcing that they have acquired winger Jeff Skinner from Carolina. In return, the Hurricanes receive prospect winger Cliff Pu, a 2019 second-round pick, a 2020 third-round pick, and a 2020 sixth-rounder.
Skinner spent his entire eight-year career with Carolina and had been one of their more consistent scoring threats during that time. He had scored at least 20 goals in six of those seasons (and one of the years he didn’t was the lockout-shortened 2012-13 campaign).
He is, however, coming off of bit a quieter year by his standards. Last season, he played in all 82 games, tallying 24 goals and 25 assists which ranked him fourth in team scoring. That production was down considerably from 2016-17 when he posted a career-best 63 points.
It was a bit surprising how much the Hurricanes seemed to be interested in moving Skinner but with Don Waddell now at the helm of the franchise instead of former GM Ron Francis who was much more methodical, Carolina has been trying to shake up their roster this summer. This is the second significant move they’ve made this offseason with the other seeing defenseman Noah Hanifin and forward Elias Lindholm shipped to Calgary for a package highlighted by blueliner Dougie Hamilton.
The Sabres likely will envision their new acquisition playing alongside Jack Eichel on a new-look top line. Eichel hasn’t had someone like Skinner to play with thus far in his career and the same can be said for Skinner not quite having someone like Eichel as his center. That combination should have Buffalo fans more enthusiastic heading into the season and if the two click, Skinner should be in line for quite the season as free agency approaches.
Buffalo is taking on Skinner’s full $5.725MM cap hit (with a $6MM salary). The winger also waived his no-move clause to facilitate a deal, something that Luke DeCock of the Raleigh News & Observer reported earlier this week was complicating their efforts to move him.
As for Pu, Carolina is bringing in a quality prospect who has been a productive OHL scorer since being drafted in the third round (69th overall) two years ago. He split last season between London and Kingston, combining to score 29 goals and 55 assists in 65 games. Pu is now signed to his entry-level deal and will likely start next season with Charlotte of the AHL.
It will be interesting to see if the Hurricanes look to replace Skinner outside of the organization now that they have some payroll freed up. Alternatively, they could look to second-overall pick Andrei Svechnikov to step in and play a top-six role right away. Either way, Carolina is going to look quite different when the puck drops on the new season in October.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Seems odd
Good way to rebuild Buffalo…trade away your top player and then give away futures for a winger and still miss the playoffs. Head-scratcher for sure.
Buffalo traded Eichel?!? Noooooo
If Eichel can actually stay healthy for a year he may turn into something. I almost forgot about him, you’re right, they traded their best 2 way player in O’Reilly. Just when Skinner thought he couldn’t be in a worse organization, boom, welcome to Buffalo. Only way down from there is going to Ottawa.
How do you forget about a player who comes into the league and has three straight 20+ goal seasons, leads the team in points while missing 15 or so games and is nearly a point per game player?
Sabres add a potentially franchise altering D man, two wingers who are near locks for twenty goal seasons, and are about to graduate one of the best US junior players in quite some time in Mittlestadt and you liken them to the Sens?
Mark, cjmask clearly is not an NHL fan just a troll. there is no arguing for Carolina in this trade.
Does anyone really believe Buffalo has any chances of being a contender this year? Not likely.
what does that have to do with it? yes Skinner is an FA but he could sign long term and if not, if he has a good season he likely lands more than this at the deadline.
Literally the only Sabres games I watch are the ones vs the Leafs. You know that team that actually finally actually has a plan? Buffalo should pay attention.
Sure. Get more for him. If it was that easy, Carolina would have done it already. If that was the best offer they got, it’s not likely Buffalo would get “more” for him. With the moves they have made this offseason, they may have valued themselves to the 5th best team in the division.
*vaulted. Not valued
he had a no movement clause so he got to choose where to go. If the season goes to heck and he doesn’t want to sign long term, he’s likely times over to go to a Conte see.
how can you not like this for buffalo? this is a major fleecing. even if they can’t get Skinner signed long term which I’m guessing they will try to, they gave up nothing for a guy who could pot 20-25. they likely can get a 1st for him at deadline if he has that type of season.
At such a low cost, totally worth the gamble.
Little confused as Carolina wants to win now and uh…. Cliff Pu won’t help them do that
They may try to package some of those picks for more out of another team for Faulk.
Why would a team trading for faulk want a pic?
as an offset to a higher round or mutiple picks they will trade to Carolina.
Poo!
I think most experts in the industry agree. The canes certainly got Pu in return
Funny but also accurate
I know this is probably a stupid question, are buffalo and Carolina in the same division? If they are than Carolina will probably see a lot of skinner, and if not they’ll still skinner just not as often.
Both in the east. Different divisions
They’re not, but the move makes little to no sense especially for buffalo
how does this make no sense for buffalo?
How is this bad for Buffalo? They gave Eichel one of the better pure scoring wingers in the league. Or, at the very worst, they split them up and now have a good secondary scoring wing on the second line. If this was any other team most people would probably be saying this was a great trade but because its Buffalo its a questionable one? Skinner is still flippable if Buffalo struggles.
So, we dumped Skinner. That means I need to bank bucks for going deep into the playoffs, I would presume.
Buffalo did very nicely today.
You add a Winger that has scored well for many seasons.
You also kept the 1st round picks.
With both Moulson & Pominville coming off the books after this season you can affors to resign him. Only players signed beyond 3 years is Eichel & Risto.
This is a steal for Buffalo. Skinner with Eichel and Reinhart. Thank you Carolina. Skinner will score 35 to 40 this year and sign a long term contract. 7 years 49 million. Again , thank you Carolina!!!!!!!!!
Okposo has 6 years last at $6mil per
The Sabres are on the right path now. I like everything they have done so far plus 3 first round picks next year.
Okposo How will this impact him? His playing time? His happiness? What about having to move his locker.