Skinner @ 5 mills for 3 years for a freebie?
Ok. Why not. He has 33-35-24 goals his last 3 years.
At worst we can retain another 50% and id figure Skinner at 2,5 mills is starting to really garner some interest.. This doesnt really handcuff us from anything or prevent us from continuing to re-tool. I like it.
Hard time seeing why Sabres does this though. You really that desparate to get rid of him?
Why Buffalo is doing it? They have a LOT of young guys in the pipeline (like 3-5 first round forwards in the past few years waiting to make the jump to the big club). They are thinking that a young improving guy with 1st round talent that will make mistakes defensively but will TRY to play defense is simply better than a 'kinda older' guy with offensive skills that brings nothing when his team doesn't have the puck.
I'm not big on the 'fancy stats' but there is one guy who generates them for players and on a scale of 0-99, actually had some kind of stats rating Skinner a ZERO when it comes to defensive zone play (see below). The numbers/charts he shows says you haven't, and will not get anything defensively from him, and his offensive numbers are good but starting to decline, and even those 'good' numbers are in the 25 goal area.
Watching more than a few Buffalo games, I think Skinner is still 'useful' but not as much as most say:
-I think you can count on him for 20-25, MAYBE 30 goals, but he is starting to slow down a bit with age (remember he's a small guy and a lot of his goals come from the front of the net where he takes a beating).....BUT you need to give him top line PP time and top 2 line minutes if you want that.
-Defense. Not good. Now, he doesn't make any glaring mistakes in his own zone, no giveways, you won't see him on the highlight real as the direct reason a goal against was scored. But that is because he simply refuses to enter the D-zone at times. I'm pretty sure that is why Lindy Ruff doesn't want him around.
I have seen Buffalo games, MULTIPLE TIMES where the puck goes back deep into the Buffalo Defensive zone...Skinner is a bit late coming back, and when he gets to the defensive blue line, he will literally stop and stand near the blue line. It actually DOES happen.
So Skinner is not 'washed up' and he has offensive skill and can give you 20-30 goals. BUT there is a big time trade off for that (you need to give him top minutes to get that and you will have a defensive liability when you do that.)
