Only thing i’d change is buying out Okposo
Put Skinner back on line1 with Eichel & I’m sure he’ll go right back to scoring a bunch of goals

Pretty good ideas overall though!

I get what you’re saying , but If you get a chance to buy out a guy who will likely underperform for the next 7 years at a 9 mill cap hit without it affecting the cap, you do it. I still think skinner can be an effective player for the next 3-4 years, but nowhere near being worth 9 mill.

I would buy out skinner and then buyout okposo in 2 years (save 3 mill)

Skinner scored 40 last year with Eichel
Idk when he’ll drop off, but for arguments sake we’ll say 4 years

So 3 drop off years of Skinner
Or Okposo is under contract for 3 more years not providing much at all

Seems to me I’d rather have a guy scoring 35+ goals for the next 4 years (maybe longer, who knows?) and we’ll see what happens vs keeping Okposo now

Besides... in 4 years, 9mil will roughly be what 6mil is now
And even if Skinner does drop off, I’ll bet he can still net 20 for us towards the end of that deal

You are absolutely wrong about 9 million being "worth" 6 million in four years. That would make the cap 122.25 million in four seasons. Even before the pause that's about 30 million too high. After the pause and economic uncertainty it's probably closer to 35 million dollars too high.

That contract will still most likely be "worth" 8 million in today's cap in four years. It probably is still "worth" around 7 million in today's cap in the last year of it.

Not to mention being pretty high on what Skinner will probably do through the whole contract.

Skinner isn't going anywhere. Just like eichel isn't going anywhere.

You need a new gm for skinner

They way you’re doing your math is inaccurate for the point i made
No, the Cap isn’t going up 33%
But the same way that secondary players are now in the $6mil range... in 4 years secondary players will be making 9mil while the top guys are making 12+

So no, I’m not “absolutely wrong”
You just didn’t understand what i was saying


And thinking Skinner with a Center like Eichel will produce 35+ goals isn’t unreasonable
Especially since he scored 40 with him last season

Just can’t put Skinner with Marcus Johansson (a winger) as his Center for almost the whole season & expect the same results

GMs will still go by percentage of cap so I'm not sure any secondary player will get 9 million consistently on winning teams until the cap would be high enough to justify it. Especially considering RFAs now get big money on their second contracts. That could increase the amount of bad contracts in the league though.

I meant through the whole contract not the first few seasons. Players fall off, and most of the time it's rather sudden. Big reason I want Lehner to stay. With seven seasons on the contract it's likely the last two or three are painful, didn't mean the first four or five couldn't be productive.

Bottom line:
I think Skinner will be plenty productive as a goal scorer if we play him with a good Center
Him being over paid by 1mil or so just doesn’t bother me

Go Sabres!

I don't think they should or would buy him out, even if the NHL offered free ones. The Sabres need is more good centers, you are correct.