Sabres Trade For A Proven Scorer
Even with all the moves the Buffalo Sabres made since the end of their disastrous 2017-18 season, the Sabres still needed more. On Thursday night they just may have bridged that gap with a trade with the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Sabres have acquired winger Jeff Skinner in exchange for prospect Cliff Pu and three draft picks. Skinner scored 24 goals and 25 assists last year for the Hurricanes. He's 26 years old and was the Calder Trophy winner in 2011 as Rookie of the Year. He's the kind of scoring winger the Sabres have needed and he likely will end up on one of the Sabres' top two lines.
Being able to draft Rasmus Dahlin and the Ryan O'Reilly trade with St. Louis that brought Vladimir Sobotka, Patrik Berglund, Tage Thompson and two draft picks to Buffalo was a plus. But the Sabres were still short in the talent department. Thursday's trade with Carolina tips the talent meter more to the plus side.
The only negative surrounding Skinner is he has a history of concussions. He had three concussions early in his career, but has been mostly injury-free for the past four seasons.
Skinner is in the final year of a contract that pays him $5.25-million.
In addition to Pu, the Sabres are sending a 2nd round draft pick in 2019, plus third and sixth round picks in 2020 to the Hurricanes.