That isn't happening; it literally accomplishes nothing for Buffalo. We'd be better off buying him out if we want a 4mil + cap hit on Skinner

Buying him out would cost BUF $37M, trading him will cost BUF $27M.

The real money doesn't really matter in this case; they aren't trading you a Top 10 pick and a 2nd for $4.5mil cap hits for 5/6 years and $10mil in real money for him not to play for Buffalo.

No freaking way
Sabres aren’t gonna do that

Agreed. Retaining 27 million dollars and giving up a lottery first beyond stupid. They would also get a second in a supposedly deep draft and skinner at 4.5m, which historically has been a 20 goal winger.

Alright yo... Enough f#ckin around. What the hell happened to Skinner?? Like, I get he needs to be on a top-6 line, with excellent playmakers in order to do what he does best, finish plays with goals. So what's the deal? This downfall started in 19-20, what was the catalyst? Olofsson was on fire, so Skinner was demoted to Johanssen's line and couldn't gel with him? Help me out here, I don't watch a lot of Sabers hockey, but I watch a lot of Melody Martin, and she doesn't deserve to be this upset.

It’s this simple:
Our coach is p!ssed at him for some reason, so he won’t play him in the top6 where he belongs
Skinner is still playing well (based on his analytics),
but he’s not scoring points bc :
1- the system our coach has us playing is VERY defensive
Eichel has 2 goals, Hall has 1, need i say more?
2- he’s being used heavily in defensive situations
3- he’s playing on a line with borderline NHLers in Lazar & Sheahan- who just don’t have much offensive talent at all

In summary:
Skinner is still good,
but our **** coach needs to put him back with Eichel (where he scored 40goals) & open up the freaking offense

And yes.... he’s overpaid at 9mil & has no trade value whatsoever- we all know that

How long has Krueger been with BUF? I thought Eichel loved him.
What I'm getting at is, how do we explain 19-20?

Eichel did love him- idk if he still does ?
Playing with even more defensive focus this season,
plus just some bad luck

I think Kruger has them even more focused defensively bc our goaltending isn’t good enough & we just aren’t EDM or TML that can go out & consistently win games 5-4 or 6-5

Also, last year, kreuger wanted skinner to drive play on his own line. Unfortunately the ex-gm gave the coach marcus johansson as the #2 center (he was steaming hot garbage and hadnt played center in years), and some combination of connor sheary, jimmy vesey, vladimir sobotka, and evan rodrigues as wingers. So skinner had very very little to play with. Now kreuger has decided that skinner is going to be a more well rounded player or he will sit. Im not as upset as most fans are, its the coaches prerogative to make his players play his gameplan. Hes not hurting his trade value, hes probably 2 million over market even if he puts up 30g and 20a, which means hes going to be here for awhile. Of course we need goals, skinner should be back in the lineup soon, not sure how far kreuger is willing to take this. Skinner has had this rep his whole career- no defense, probably good for 30g/20a in a good year, not sure at 28 with 60 million guatanteed that hes going to change that now.

or buffalo can keep skinner

or buffalo can buy out skinner

or buffalo can fire kruger and play skinner

The more I research the more it looks like Krueger's trying to run him outta town so they can sign Hall long-term.

Run him out how? We've had berglund and Bogosian literally walk away from money to leave here, but neither left 60 million on the table. A buyout is until 2033, and retaining would be 7 years- and you probably, as of right now, would have to retain 4.5m just to get back a 7th round pick and a box of fresh Montana air. It does put a smile on my face to think of Ralph kreuger and Kevyn Adams both putting on ski masks and waiting in the shadows in the players parking garage with a couple of lead pipes- just to put Skinner on ltir. I wonder...