None of this is done in a vacuum. Lets for a moment think through a scenario where the RW spot on Zibanejad's line needs to be a lower salary and look at Skinner that way.
Say Drury trades Lindgren but then they love the idea of bringing in Skjei. Well there goes $7m or so. They also, IMO, likely prioritize bringing in another center in case Chytil misses time. Say they spend $2m on Blueger. $9m down. Then they trade Kakko for Farabee, that adds $2.6m in cap hit.
Now they're looking for a top-9 RW. Perhaps Skinner, at a modest cap hit, makes sense playing with Cuylle/Berard and Chytil on the 3rd line? Or with Zibanejad and Kreider in the top-6 with Farabee playing with Chytil and Berard/Cuylle?
I guess my point is, Skinner isn't likely to command a contract where he would an 'answer' to anything. But the people calling him a bad player are missing the point. He's easily a top-9 scoring winger with a proven pedigree. Lets not forget that in the past 3 seasons, he has 92 goals (33, 35 and 24) playing Buffalo. Hell just last year he had 82 points in 79 games.
Yes he has his warts and he isn't overly physical but if the team is looking to beef up their depth scoring on that 3rd line, is Skinner really that bad of an option, say, at $2.5m?