Confirmed with Link: Jeff Skinner -- Bought Out 6/29/24

[Jim Bob]

The people who dislike this deal have simply
Forgotten the Sabres sole purpose

To be a lottery team?

 

[Jim Bob]

I just hope there arent some brutal clauses attached that would prevent us from moving him in the last 2 years when things almost surely will be ugly as hell.

The full NMC for the length of the deal is the toughest part to swallow for me.

 

[Jim Bob]

Too much money especially given the 8th year & NMC. Without the NMC or if it was for 5/6 years I really wouldn't have a problem with the dollars since he should be worth it during that time.

Hopefully Botterill & his much vaunted cap skills can perform some trickery down the road assuming he is still in the job by then.

That is if Botterill is the GM that far down the road.

The cap issues might be someone else’s mess to the clean up.

 

[Rowley Birkin]

I’ve seen similar posts to this one - Skinner has had a full NTC since he was first eligible to get one. Why would that change when he hits UFA? 5 or 6 years was NEVER on the table. Ever. The only way Skinner was signing before July 1 was if he was getting the eighth year. Period.

Since NHL congrats are essentially guaranteed, that eighth year adds a lot of additional GTD money that other teams could not have offered without adding about $1.25m AAV to the contract.

Skinner was always getting a full NMC, 8 years and around $9m or he was going to UFA. If Buffalo wasn’t offering the eighth year then they never stood a chance - it was really the only leverage they had.

You're right.

The point I was trying to make is - i would be OK with the dollars if the contract wasn't so long or didn't include the NMC.

But since the contract was always going to include those things then 9m was always going to be too much.

One other point - there's a difference between full NMC which he got & NTC which he had before. That might have a big impact in the last year's of the deal..

 

[sincerity0]

You're right.

The point I was trying to make is - i would be OK with the dollars if the contract wasn't so long or didn't include the NMC.

But since the contract was always going to include those things then 9m was always going to be too much.

One other point - there's a difference between full NMC which he got & NTC which he had before. That might have a big impact in the last year's of the deal..

Teams / fans obviously don’t like NTC/M clauses because they are restricting. My point was that Skinner had a full NTC already so he kind of has leverage to get another one. I hate it too, but Buffalo wasn’t getting out of it.

 

[gallagt01]

Had to get him signed. It is what it is.

Now go get a 2C.

 

[Fezzy126]

I'm really interested in seeing where contracts for Marner, Rantanen, Aho, and Point come in. I know that they're in a different situation as RFAs, but I do wonder if this affects their bargaining power.

 

[Willgamesh]

Happy with it, At least we are not losing talent for once. Gonna mentor Caufield to the Calder get hyped boys.

 

[NotABadPeriod]

The fact that Botterill, who was supposed to be a good "cap guy" when he was hired, has not been able to extract a hometown discount on his two big extensions (Eichel, Skinner) is concerning. Now some of that is inexorably linked to the fact this team hasn't been good, but still. I'm OK with overpaying a little for top guys, but this really is going to put an onus on drafting well. In order to compete this team is going to need impact players on rookie deals. They need to take advantage of these next two years because when Dahlin is up for his next contract, there shouldn't be any faith in Botterill securing a team friendly deal.

 

[5 Minute Major]

Ah yes, the goal is to win the stanley cup.

We got a career year out of jeff last year, let's see where led us to in the standings!

Wait, wait.....looks like we finished 20 points out of the playoffs.

Well, it's ok, surely he's lead OTHER teams into the playoffs! Let's look at his career numbers

Oh. 0 Playoff games played.

So, what's our purpose again? To overpay above average talent to help us...miss the playoffs?

If so

You are correct in your statement.

I am also correct that Skinner was a big reason the Sabres were #1 overall in November.

The fact is neither one of our statements mean much.

What is the truth is you need good players to win and Jeff Skinner is a good player.

 

[old kummelweck]

I'd love to know the degree to which the pegulas are pulling the strings behind the scenes in all of these transactions. Yesterday it looked like the Sabres were holding fast at below $9 a year and it was bit if a stare-down.

 

[Rowley Birkin]

The fact that Botterill, who was supposed to be a good "cap guy" when he was hired, has not been able to extract a hometown discount on his two big extensions (Eichel, Skinner) is concerning. Now some of that is inexorably linked to the fact this team hasn't been good, but still. I'm OK with overpaying a little for top guys, but this really is going to put an onus on drafting well. In order to compete this team is going to need impact players on rookie deals. They need to take advantage of these next two years because when Dahlin is up for his next contract, there shouldn't be any faith in Botterill securing a team friendly deal.

Eichel's deal wasn't overpayment.

 

[TehDoak]

I’m going to call this contract the powerglove deal because....


....it’s so bad

 

[yahhockey]

Glad he's stayimg. Maybe up to one million too much but close enough to not risk losimg 30 to 40 goals.

 

[NotABadPeriod]

Eichel's deal wasn't overpayment.

No, but there wasn't a discount either. Being able to get surplus value on that deal would have made it a lot easier to acquire additional talent to surround him with.

 

[hizzoner]

I have finally come to terms with this contract. We are agreeing to pay a million a year and a no movement clause to sign an eight million a year guy we otherwise would not have and for whom we did not now have to give up players or prospects. So we just got Skinner-signed hypothetically to a 7 year 8 million a year deal and we paid out the extra money and terms but no picks or prospects to get him.

 

[krt88nc]

Looks like a full no movement clause and very little bonus money. 10 million salary at start, 5 million in year 8.

 

[Gabrielor]

Glad it's done. Now get on with make some more additions.

Yup. This is the more important part. This is what I’ll judge Botts’ summer on.

 

[BowieSabresFan]

I'm really interested in seeing where contracts for Marner, Rantanen, Aho, and Point come in. I know that they're in a different situation as RFAs, but I do wonder if this affects their bargaining power.

Yeah, I think Toronto is going to have a tough time keeping Marner under 10 per now. I’m heartbroken about that.

 

[EichHart]

1 year too long and 1 mil overpaid. Botts had no choice after losing ROR last year. We have our first line locked up. Now go get a #2 C and a goalie and we can finally make some improvement with a good coach.

 

[Chainshot]

Is it safe to say that most Sabre fans are in the "pleased they retained him, know the end of the deal is going to be bad, what else ya' got to help the team?" mentality?

 

[TheStorm]

Is it safe to say that most Sabre fans are in the "pleased they retained him, know the end of the deal is going to be bad, what else ya' got to help the team?" mentality?

I just hope it's not a disaster like Moulson or Okposo.

 

[Chainshot]

I just hope it's not a disaster like Moulson or Okposo.

He has an age advantage on Moulson by almost 4 full years comparing the two signings. And we didn't know that Okposo was going to lose his game after getting hurt. Both of those factors mitigate things for me a bit.

 

[Sabreality]

Is it safe to say that most Sabre fans are in the "pleased they retained him, know the end of the deal is going to be bad, what else ya' got to help the team?" mentality?

And I'm not even convinced the end of the deal will be truly that awful. If he can stay healthy and not lose his legs I don't see why he couldn't continue to put up points ala a Pavelski-lite type (who's 34 already). He's obviously not a plodder like Ryan, Kesler, Looch, Okie etc who's contracts immedately looked poor.

 

[Chainshot]

And I'm not even convinced the end of the deal will be truly that awful. If he can stay healthy and not lose his legs I don't see why he couldn't continue to put up points ala a Pavelski-lite type (who's 34 already). He's obviously not a plodder like Ryan, Kesler, Looch, Okie etc who's contracts immedately looked poor.

Moulson was never fleet, so he dropped considerably and quickly. He's younger than some of those guys and that skating advantage should be with him until later into his deal. I'm thrilled to see him out finding new training techniques and working with body performance folks.

And at the same time, I do expect the last 2 or 3 years of this deal to be painful. I hope to be wrong about that in a way that's positive for the team (rather than say, wrong where the contract and production are bad from say years 3-8 )