The Seattle Kraken would be able to get a number 1 centre in exchange for taking on Skinner's contract.

Ron Francis and Skinner has history. Plus, Skinner has played well with Eichel in the past. Eichel also mentioned that he wants out of Buffalo, so you need to find a good trade value for him. Getting rid of Skinner's contract is just as good as getting 1-2 1st round picks. Especially at that lenght.

So Buffalo would offer Eichel in order to get Seattle to take Skinner in the expansion draft. Buffalo gets a 3rd round pick in exchange.

What do you think?

In theory it works, but unfortunately BUF just cannot afford to get rid of Eichel for nothing. He's the face of the franchise and was supposed to be the savior. To use him as a bonus for getting rid of a bad contract would be the death of the Sabres to the fanbase and every single management person on the team would be executed in front of the arena in the riot that would ensue. If they move Eichel, it has to be for a big pay day to get this team competitive within a year or two. And that's going to be extremely tough to do considering his comments this week and the fact that he has a disk problem in his neck.

The fact that he wants out and the injury lowers his value. Also, this would get rid of 19m of space. Seeing how the salary cap won't move for a few years, it gives Buffalo some incentive to make a trade similar to this.

But his value to the team isn't that low. BUF would rather sit on his contract and have him hold out, than look like chumps around the league. They can't risk him going to another team and tearing it up, with no return other than getting rid of a contract. They'd never recover, and top end players would never sign there as a free agent if the franchise is looked at as a joke. They'd be screwed for another 20 years. Getting rid of $19 mil in cap space doesn't help when nobody in the league will want the money.

I understand what you're saying, but at this point, with all that's happened with different players wanting to leave, it seems like they need to go through another rebuild. No one is going to want to play in Buffalo regardless, so having more cap space may make it easier to get players to sign if they're given a little more than what they're worth (think Murray and Ottawa).

Either way, I believe Buffalo needs a tear down from the top down. That's the only way they'll be able to get competitive again.

they are not about to trade eichel just to get rid of skinner if they are going to tear down and start a rebuild again they will have to use eichel as a trade chip to get a load of picks and prospects in return despite how low his trade value might be right now he is still easily worth 1-2 first round picks 2 high end prospects and maybe 1-2 mid range roster players who can play 2nd or third line

If Buffalo really wanted Seattle to take Skinner in the draft they don't do it by adding Eichel. They do it with prospects/picks. Anything they loose in doing this ,they more than make back when trading Eichel in an asset gathering trade.
Never move a valued piece like Eichel in a salary dump trade.
Not to mention the fans would loose it!!

yeah totally fair