Confirmed with Link: Jeff Skinner re-signs. 8 years, $9M AAV.

[Beerz]

 

[Ehran]

Obviously not disappointing enough to play even a semblance of defense.

 

[sabremike]

Do people really think getting rid of Skinner (and wrecking us on the cap for the next several seasons) will magically make Granato and his assistants good at their jobs?

 

[Push Dr Tracksuit]

Do people really think getting rid of Skinner (and wrecking us on the cap for the next several seasons) will magically make Granato and his assistants good at their jobs?

No one thinks that

No one has thought that

 

[Gras]

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

Do people really think getting rid of Skinner (and wrecking us on the cap for the next several seasons) will magically make Granato and his assistants good at their jobs?

Ever hear of a coach named Rod Brind'Amour? He might be considered the best coach in the game and he refused to coach Skinner.

Do you think replacing Granato will make lazy, opportunist loser players like skinner want to win enough to not phone it in 60% of the time?

 

[BFLO]

Do people really think getting rid of Skinner (and wrecking us on the cap for the next several seasons) will magically make Granato and his assistants good at their jobs?

If Pegula shifted his stance on how to operate this team enough to ditch skinner this summer he would also be moving on from Adams and Granato.

 

[Tatanka]

If Pegula shifted his stance on how to operate this team enough to ditch skinner this summer he would also be moving on from Adams and Granato.

None are happening.

 

[dire wolf]

I'm more concerned with the coaching staff than I am with Skinner's defense. A good coach will understand Skinner's talents and use him accordingly. He is an excellent 5v5 goal scorer. You always need that. You can exploit his skills and use him intelligently. I'll worry more about Skinner once I see this team under a better coaching staff. He doesn't make my list of top problems with the team, and by all accounts, he is a good teammate with a positive attitude and good training habits. I'm not expecting them to buy him out, and I'm not going to be upset when they don't. I will be upset if they return with the same staff. I would replace the whole staff, but I might be ok with them cleaning out the assistants. Matty Ellis should be a player development coach or something. He is really good about training habits, hard work and motivation. He should not be behind the bench probably.

 

[TehDoak]

\

I'm more concerned with the coaching staff than I am with Skinner's defense. A good coach will understand Skinner's talents and use him accordingly. He is an excellent 5v5 goal scorer. You always need that. You can exploit his skills and use him intelligently. I'll worry more about Skinner once I see this team under a better coaching staff. He doesn't make my list of top problems with the team, and by all accounts, he is a good teammate with a positive attitude and good training habits. I'm not expecting them to buy him out, and I'm not going to be upset when they don't. I will be upset if they return with the same staff. I would replace the whole staff, but I might be ok with them cleaning out the assistants. Matty Ellis should be a player development coach or something. He is really good about training habits, hard work and motivation. He should not be behind the bench probably.

This is one of the things I roasted Krueger for and one thing Granato did right. He put Skinner in a position to succeed. Krueger essentially. made an example of him and lit 9M dollars on fire.

The problem is, for Skinner to succeed, the team is going to be limited. And that is what we've seen. When he's force fed o zone starts and give him linemates that will attract attention away from him, he will produce. At an elite rate. But....that essentially locks him into one role, top line LW on a one dimensional line.

It's great for scoring goals.....bad for winning games.

And, to add fuel to the fire, Peterka has effectively passed him on the depth chart. That means his usage next year will likely have to change....what Skinner will we get?

Since Feb 1st, Skinner has:

27 GP, 7G, 5A...and his TOI has gone from 17:33 in October to 13:20 in March.

And it should be noted, 3 of those goals came in a single game.

But, in the end:

Skinner isn't good in transition.

He isn't good on the PP

He isn't good in his own zone

Skinner is extremely good below the faceoff dots in the offensive zone when players around him are attracting attention away from him.

So, well yes, a good coach "can unlock him", it's a bit like have a RWD sports car in a northern climate. Under ideal conditions, its great. But....trying to use it in anything less than that is going to be a horrible experience.

He simply isn't a cog in a winning formula. And we have six years of evidence in Buffalo showing us just that.

So well yes, we can see that a coach can 'unlock' skinner, the fact that he can only be successful in specific conditions really shows how foolish it would be to keep him.

 

[Dingo44]

 

[The Blunder Years]

He is at his best when he is drawing penalties, screaming at opponents, and scoring clutch goals. I barely saw that this year. Amazing how he can either be the laziest player on the ice or the most tenacious.

 

[Satanphonehome]

Krebs found him several times today in a way that was central to the game of Krebs the prospect, but has been largely missing from Krebs the NHLer.

Greenway can defend and create the kind of chaos down low to complement Jeff in the way his game needs.

There's some potential for an intriguing 3rd line there.

 

[Beerz]

He is at his best when he is drawing penalties, screaming at opponents, and scoring clutch goals. I barely saw that this year. Amazing how he can either be the laziest player on the ice or the most tenacious.

That game disappeared from Krebs game as well. Makes you wonder if that type of game is being coached out of these guys

 

[BowieSabresFan]

Late in the second period today, Skinner just stopped skating instead of initiating a board battle for the puck. He’s obviously not interested in putting forth a decent effort.

That’s not on the coach. It’s on Skinner and no one else.

Saying that, we’re unfortunately stuck with him for a while longer.

 

[SabresFan26]

Late in the second period today, Skinner just stopped skating instead of initiating a board battle for the puck. He’s obviously not interested in putting forth a decent effort.

That’s not on the coach. It’s on Skinner and no one else.

Saying that, we’re unfortunately stuck with him for a while longer.

Buy him out. We aren’t in trouble with the cap.
Kruger was on to something which is why he was a fourth liner. He didn’t play a 180 foot game.

 

[slip]

Buy him out. We aren’t in trouble with the cap.
Kruger was on to something which is why he was a fourth liner. He didn’t play a 180 foot game.

If you think Pegula is too cheap to fire Granato and pay him several mil over a couple of seasons to sit around, there's no way he's paying Skinner close to 15 million over three years to not play here. Especially since he was the driving force behind Botterill handing him this ridiculous, unmovable contract in the first place.

At this point it's a rite of passage for each garbage Sabres GM to burden his successor with a massively crappy contract: Murray did it with Okposo, Botterill did it with Skinner. and Adams will do it to the next guy with Power. Yippee!

 

[SabresFan26]

If you think Pegula is too cheap to fire Granato and pay him several mil over a couple of seasons to sit around, there's no way he's paying Skinner close to 15 million over three years to not play here. Especially since he was the driving force behind Botterill handing him this ridiculous, unmovable contract in the first place.

At this point it's a rite of passage for each garbage Sabres GM to burden his successor with a massively crappy contract: Murray did it with Okposo, Botterill did it with Skinner. and Adams will do it to the next guy with Power. Yippee!

Adams contracts might be what he’s worse at. He signed a guy to a 7 year deal without ever scoring a goal in the NHL.

And Pegula forced Botterill to sign Skinner to that deal so that also is reason why he wouldn’t admit he was wrong.

 

[DapperCam]

Please buy this guy out. Cap hit be darned.

 

[Chainshot]

Bakes and Fairburn onto the idea of moving on from Skinner.

 

[michaelsaas]

Bakes and Fairburn onto the idea of moving on from Skinner.

I support this message.

 

[RefsIdeas]

I’m guessing here, but I think it took a lot of restraint by Donny to not bench Skinner. He seems like the kind of player you need to handle with kid gloves, otherwise they’ll lose confidence and you’re left with a 9 million dollar guy who isn’t scoring or playing defense.

Not sure how many other coaches are going to tolerate Skinners indifference to playing defense on a nightly basis.

 

[Dubi Doo]

Bakes and Fairburn onto the idea of moving on from Skinner.

Oh boy, that's an interesting idea. He pretty much needs to be on a scoring line to be effective, and it appears the wheels may be falling off- so do they want a winger who relies on their skating and already sucks defensively cemented on one of the scoring lines possibly providing negative value?

I'd assume the cap ramifications would be pretty damn ugly, though. Does waiting a year provide a significant difference on the cap?

 

[Chainshot]

No goals in his last 13 after his hat trick in Seattle. In that span, he had 1 assist, had 2 games with only 1 shot and 4 without any. For a volume shooter type, that's unacceptable.

 

[Chainshot]

Oh boy, that's an interesting idea. He pretty much needs to be on a scoring line to be effective, and it appears the wheels may be falling off- so do they want a winger who relies on their skating and already sucks defensively cemented on one of the scoring lines possibly providing negative value?

I'd assume the cap ramifications would be pretty damn ugly, though. Does waiting a year provide a significant difference on the cap?

I don't think they can wait, regardless of the ramifications.