Eichel is pretty elite at puck retrieval. Although he can finish well, he often chooses not to. Skinner and Eichel pair well because Skinner can work magic as long as someone else does the initial forecheck for him. Though, it must be noted that Skinner is great at preventing breakouts, but Thant’s different than initial entries and dump ins. Pominville caps the trio by being in position to finish since he’s fairly smart, even with his wheels fallen off. It looks like he’s already been replaced by Reinhart anyway.
Canes fans did say keep Skinner away from talent and let him drive a 3rd line. Buffalo just got rid of another player with the same fate: Evander Kane. Big difference was that Kane has zero hockey IQ and would shoot or turnover the puck every time he got his hands on it, and Eichel passed too soon in a play for that to mesh. He was also a bugger diva that simply stopped trying when he wasn’t getting top minutes anymore. Kane has a better locker room now, which helps a lot for brute iq players like him.
Skinner and Eichel compliment each other perfectly though. They only suffer defensively when Eichel takes his games off, but no winger is going to resolve that anyway. He needs to be retained in Buffalo and I think he has every reason to want to stay too. He’s always smiling out there and that bodes well for negotiations.
I hope they can keep him under 8 mil. 5 years might be nice for flexibility, but there’s little risk for 8 years with Jack always going to be here for that. Get it done.
Doubt anything happens until offseason anyway.