Jeff Skinner - $9M healthy scratch

Haven’t been paying attention to the Sabres. Has he looked as bad as the stats indicate? 1 assist in 14 games and a -1.

 

From my understanding, he's looked bad with bad players and most buffalo fans are aggravated Ralph won't play him with Jack or Staal.

Could be wrong don't quote me.

This is brutal though that he's scratched.

 

He told Kruger in camp that he really wanted to have a good year, and turn things around and Kruger said, "We'll see about that"

 

He’s had chances but been snake bitten. He should have at least three goals based on his chances so far, but he needs to get to the gritty areas.

You can tell his teammates want him to get that monkey off his back. At the end of the third during the last game Lazar had a chance at an open net and didn’t take it and instead took it in to the corner and looked for him out front. That almost came back to bite us in the ass.

All things considered I’d rather Okposo get scratched instead. At least Skinner isn’t cosplaying as Jason Allison

 

NHL teams should have followed Bettman's advice when he said he wanted them to push for contract lengths of five years maximum.

 

really sucks. Buffalo was pretty much forced to give him a big deal and they're being punished for it. No sport is as handcuffed by salary caps as much as hockey

 

Yikes! What a waste of salary cap.

 

Forced to? C’mon now. Not like they even gave up any good assets for him. Everyone and their grandma knew that was a bad deal the day it was signed.

 

yes. they never are able to sign free agents and they needed to prove that they were serious about winning. they traded for a guy and he scored 40 goals for them, they couldn't let him walk

 

On the bright side that contract only lasts till the end of time.

 

Not for not forced at all.

Bad deal the day it was signed.

Albatross of a contract today.

 

honestly didnt know Okposo was still in the league

 

I don’t think Okposo knows he’s still in the league

 

They were forced to try to do something to become not-awful. Signing Skinner was the logical move, although it was a horrible deal as soon as the numbers were revealed.

 

You always have a choice. Canes essentially gave him up for a bunch of nothing because they knew what it would take to sign him and didn’t want to go there.

 

He was never worth anything close to 9m per year. A career high of 63 points should never have earned him that contract even if he scored 40 goals. To think he was going to repeat that type of season again was silly.

 

Mrs. Krueger made eyes at Skinner or somethin, idk, but there’s no way he should come out of the lineup before okposo.

 

Smart GMs will let players walk if they don't think the contract matches the output they are going to get from a player. If a GM is overpaying players to get them to stay because they had a single big season after a trade, that is a GM who isn't going to have a job very long.

 

0 goals 1 point in 14 games, they are sending a message to Skinner that his play is unacceptable.

 

Contract is a sunk cost when deciding on a roster — at least if maximizing performance is your objective. You play the best performers and get rid of the parasites and cockroaches.

 

I really wish he was playing tonight

/Isles fan

 

He’s looked like one of the more dangerous Sabres whenever the Caps play Buffalo, but he hasn’t converted that into points. Still seems rather absurd he hasn’t been given a chance with better linemates.

 

Soon to be a 30 million dollar buyout.

 

I don’t understand what Krueger’s trying to achieve.

You know what kind of player Skinner is. You knew it when you signed him, and for a whole decade before that. This is a guy who plays a very specific kind of game and is very effective at it. Trying to change him now is pointless (literally).

You’re in last place. Eichel has 2 goals. Your top goal producers are Olofsson and... Reinhart. You know who scores 30-40 goals per 82 like clockwork? Jeff Skinner.

Not only is his contract a sunk cost, it’s not even hypothetically moveable unless he starts producing.

Here’s a guy who went against the grain to choose Buffalo in large part because he could fill a role next to Eichel. Eichel’s struggling. The team is losing. You need a goal scorer. Your goal scorer is paid so much he needs to break out. He’s too niche of a player to benefit from any kind of change to his pure offensive role.

All possible angles of this point to... putting Skinner and Eichel back together? Nah. Healthy scratch.

 

Have they not played together at all?