Buffalo Sabres bolster offence with Jeff Skinner trade
The Buffalo Sabres continue their remake trading for winger Jeff Skinner in a trade that adds much-needed offence to their top six. forward group.
After trading Ryan O’Reilly to the St. Louis Blues, the Buffalo Sabres continue to make changes to their top-six forward group trading for Jeff Skinner from the Carolina Hurricanes.
Over eight seasons with the Hurricanes, Skinner scored 204 goals, 175 assists for 379 points in 579 games including three 30 goal seasons. Going to Carolina is prospect Cliff Pu, a second-round pick (2019), plus a third and sixth round pick in 2020.
Skinner was one of the top targets this offseason with many teams reportedly interested in the winger. His no-trade clause made it tough to get a deal done as he apparently declined a couple of trade destination allowing Buffalo to come in and get a deal done.
Unfortunately for Carolina, that impacted the return that they got for the 26-year-old which in the end benefitted the Sabres. Obviously, this type of deal doesn’t put them over the top but it gets them closet to being a competitive team in the Atlantic Division.
Now the Sabres are also getting a player that’s an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season so this could be a rental for them if Skinner decides to pursue the open market. It should give fans some optimism since the winger chose to join Buffalo.
Botterill on Skinner: "It excited us that Jeff had a full no trade - and he came to Buffalo. You want guys that want to play in your city." #sabres
— Mike Zeisberger (@Zeisberger) August 3, 2018
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Whether this is the last move for Sabres general manager Jason Botterill remains to be seen as the team still could use upgrades to their blueline. At least the team now has a proven scorer to play alongside Jack Eichel or Casey Mittelstadt.
It also takes pressure off the team to rush prospects up if they still need time to develop in the AHL.
With Rasmus Dahlin expected to make the team out of training camp, the Sabres will need some of their young pieces to step up if they plan on being more competitive this season.
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What do you think about the Sabres latest deal? Does it put them in a better position to compete this season? Let us know in the comments below.