Sabres Sniper Listed Among Top Buyout Candidates
Could the Sabres move on from one of their top veteran forwards?
Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports - Sabres Sniper Listed Among Top Buyout CandidatesBuffalo Sabres forward Jeff Skinner is once again having a solid season for the club. In 66 games, the skilled winger has 24 goals and 45 points. He has shown that he is still a quality goal-scorer at this juncture of his career, but his contract will forever create chatter.
Skinner, 31, notably carries a massive $9 million cap hit until the completion of the 2026-27 season. That's a hefty chunk of change for what he produces.
Due to this, in a recent column for The Hockey News' main site, Adam Proteau listed Jeff Skinner as one of five early buyout candidates for the 2024 NHL Offseason.
Proteau noted that a Skinner buyout would be far from cheap, as it would cost the Sabres $1.4 million next season, $4.4 million in 2025-26, $6.4 million in 2026-27, and $2.4 million from 2027-28 to 2029-30. As a result, Skinner's cap hit would still be pretty significant but never close to his current $9 million cap hit.
The Sabres could try to trade Skinner, but it would be incredibly difficult to find a suitor willing to take on his entire $9 million salary. Salary retention could make it a possibility, but even then, that would only do so much due to the term he has left.
The Sabres have an array of notable prospects and young NHL forwards ready for bigger roles, so there's certainly a case to move on from Skinner this offseason. With that, it's possible that the 998-game veteran would not be against a change of scenery, as he has yet to play a playoff game in his entire 14-year NHL career. There would be interest in his services if he hit the free-agent market.
Nevertheless, we must wait and see what happens with Skinner this offseason from here.