I would Chuck Norris him off the Sabres lineup, but that might just be me

I’d rather pay Skinner $9mil than pay Johansen $7mil ($4mil + $3mil retaining on Skinner)

Understandable, but it is for one year and then you free up another $6 million for the following two years. While I like Skinner and think his game will age well, they are going to run into his contract/position in the lineup becoming an issue at some point.

Skinner is still playing well
And with the Cap going up, we should be in ok shape

Fair points. I agree that we will, especially with a lot of their key pieces locked up. I just think about a spot being used up by Skinner in three years where Kulich/Ostlund/Rosen/Savoie/Wahlberg could use one of those spots. Granted, I'm sure we will just have a logjam for many years to come and have the same roster by then.

That’s also fair,
I’m just not worried about it for another 2-3 years- when that logjam actually occurs

We do need to have a plan for when that happens though,
bc we do have a ton of talent still coming

Avs should accept.