Will Jeff Skinner be bought out by the Sabres?

Will Jeff Skinner be bought out by the Sabres?

next up on the locked on Sabers podcast will the Sabers buy out Jeff Skinner this summer and should they buy out Jeff Skinner we’ll look back on his season and what his future could hold here in Buffalo little bit on Jordan Greenway today as well we got two exit interviews for you on the locked on Sabers [Music] podcast your locked on Sabers your daily podcast on the Buffalo Sabers part of the locked on on podcast Network your team every [Music] day and thanks for making locked on Sabers your first listen every day we are free and available wherever you get your podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create an account and use the code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase terms apply sneaky Joe debiasi on the show today thanks everybody for tuning in and we’ve got two guys to talk about Jeff Skinner and Jordan Greenway also the World Championships continuing no action since we spoke to you last Sweden with Rasmus Dalene is through to the semis Dylan cousins bow and Byrum Owen power also through to the semis with that big win by Canada yesterday as well and if you want to count Victor olison I’m not inclined to because he’s almost certainly not going to play another game for the sabes but if you want him added to that list he will be playing for Sweden in the semis as well uh JJ pka’s tournament ends for team Germany so the worlds continue the playoffs continue Conor McDavid the double overtime winner after almost being probably the subject of a lot of hot takes this morning because he has not been scoring goals he has looked a little bit injured in these playoffs but he hasn’t been scoring and then overtime against Dallas the Stars AR race a two- nothing deficit Tyler Sean scores twice that game goes to overtime McDavid takes a 4minute high sticking penalty his teammates go out there and kill it off after the captain accidentally but put them in a really tough situation then McDavid all alone in front of Jake ainger has the Whole Net to shoot at and it almost looked like he froze a little bit or hesitated whatever you want to call it but it was just long enough so that ainger could get his stick over there and hekinan could get his stick over there and McDavid was not not able to get the winner in the first overtime second overtime there’s McDavid standing in front of the net Evan buard puts it right on his tape and he’s able to deflect it or one time it past ainger for the winner uh again those couple of moments earlier and overtime you could have had some hot takes about McDavid this morning but he stopped that from being a possibility by winning it for the Oilers and I am absolutely rooting for McDavid to be in the finals I don’t even know if I’ve decided whether whether I want him to win it or not I think I do but I want him in the finals the most interesting final for me I want to say by far but I don’t even know that the East really is really matters for me on this but Oilers Panthers would be awesome the Panthers are a good watch they are an exciting watch they’re a growing brand in the sport they were in the finals last year kachuck versus McDavid they’ve actually had run-ins of course way in the in the past with the Battle of Alberta all the time um McDavid does not like kachuck as most players in the league don’t like kachuck get McDavid in the finals the other side I guess I’m okay either way if it’s McDavid at New York I mean that’s pretty big too right if you’re wanting to grow the sport as much as he can get as many eyeballs as possible get as many eyeballs on him on McDavid as possible him playing at Madison Square Garden for a championship would be pretty sweet I think is going to get through though and I am rooting for Edmonton to get through as well uh if we go back to my uh playoff predictions a few weeks ago believe I had Edmonton at New York in the Stanley Cup Final so I uh I’m not just doing that because I want to be right I want to I want to see that in part because I think it would be a huge stage for uh for the world’s best player uh one nothing Edmonton in that series and one nothing Florida in the other series lot to get to on today’s show saber related of course we got Jordan Greenway to talk about a little bit later on in his season I think he’s being completely misused in certain situations but that was by Don Granado we don’t know how Lindy Ruff will want to operate uh with Jordan Greenway so we’ll get to him coming up in a little bit and by the way before we dive in on Jeff Skinner uh if you want to get in our text line you could do that by going to join sub text.com slocked ons saers to sign up if you’re already a texter you can just shoot us a text and uh we’re always looking to read the questions or comments on the show looking back on uh the last couple of texts from the last couple of days um one texter okay talking about Carolina uh Brett pesy possibly going to hit free agency and smoke around Martin niches trade Krebs Rosine and maybe a second for niches who’s a RFA by the way he just is a dream trade Target and has been for a while now what’s interesting is I tweeted about niches yesterday this is a centerman 70 points last year this year lower than that came back down to earth a little bit but he’s a restricted free agent a centerman uh a very young one and still at 20 only 25 years old for the production he’s had uh I was trying to get that exact point to 53 points this year after 71 last year love the idea I don’t know if Carolina has the money to pay him I jokingly tweeted yesterday when it came out that Don wadell was going to be stepping away as Hurricane’s general manager why don’t just the complete joke I know this is not uh serious trade Kevin Adams to Carolina for Martin niches see what they say Terry call them up see if they do they want their GM he’s buddies with Rod brymore and if they needed someone to run their organization why not the guy that’s won the Stanley Cup there now has GM experience uh I don’t need to push that anymore anyways because one I’m not really serious about it obious viously who’s trading GMS two uh the hurricanes have already landed on their guy tooi is going to be their interim GM at least for the time being I like the nichas idea though a lot from that texture and uh I’ll make him the subject of one of our episodes coming up in June uh as we try to figure out targets and trade markets and also free agency for the Savers I think this guy nichas makes a lot of sense for what they would want and what they would need let’s get to Jeff Skinner a former Carolina hurricane that could become a former Buffalo saber relatively soon let’s explore Skinner season and also How likely is a buyout for Jeff Skinner well first let’s start with the season that he just had because it was a step back no doubt about it he went from his best season as a saber and I would put that above the 40 goal season last year 35 goals 40 7 assists 82 points a guy who had never had more than 63 points in a season had 82 blew away his career high in assist he became it was his best playmaking season as a pro and it wasn’t just secondary assists there were great passes Skinner was making all year long that helped Tage Thompson get to that 47 goal Mark now it helps when you have Tage Thompson as a 40 goal scorer finishing the way he did to help you get that assist total higher he also scored goals I mean him tuck and Thompson were so so good together one of the best offensive lines in hockey one year ago this year still played with those two a lot majority of the Season it was whenever they were healthy and they weren’t always healthy tuck missed some games Thompson obviously missed a month um Skinner missed a few games as well over over the period of time eight games for him that he missed last year when everybody was healthy for the most part they were still together but they did not get the results less than a third of the goals at five on five for that line this year compared to last year Skinner took a step back and I would say he went from a bad defensive player to a truly one of the worst in the sport complete liability in any situation where you might expect him to be in his own end he was a nonf factor in that department even more so than he’s been in the past Skinner is a onedimensional hockey player but I think if you look at his season you can still find a player that is usable in a specialized role last season it was actually not going that bad our judgment on Skinner is going to be based a lot in how the season ended the season ended with him being a total total non-factor in the final 12 games of the Season zero goals and one assists absolutely brutal production no production at all from Jeff Skinner in the final 12 games of the Season much of that was spent in fact all of that was spent with pton and Jordan Greenway on his line so and sometime a little bit Zack Benson but Greenway more so that period of time is going to be a basis for why I think his role needs to be carefully used going forward if he’s going to remain on the team that was an example of what not to do we know Jeff Skinner we know for his whole career going back to the Krueger days and before that cley and then the Carolina days he is a very good goal scorer he’s a great offensive player but he needs a good to great at least centerman to set him up to get him into the scoring areas to clean up the rebounds from he needs someone else to drive the play and then he will give you the goal scoring he will execute around that super skilled centerman and pton Krebs was not up to the task at the end of last year fell way short of my expectation for Krebs and given what his draft profile was and what he was as a prospect in Vegas and what he had started to build up in the as the fourth line for the Sabers Krebs did not give Skinner what he needed in terms of scoring chances in terms of playmaking it wasn’t there if you go before those final 12 games where by far his most common line mates were the two that we talked about earlier with Tage Tom and Alex tuck in the 61 games the first 61 games of his season where it was mostly T and Tuck he had 24 goals and 21 assists 45 points in 61 games that is not bad at all in fact it’s nearly a 30 goal Pace if you look at the 82 game Pace based on that original Stretch of time it’s a 32 goal Pace in the first 61 games of the year and if he scored 32 goals uh nobody would be talking about Jeff Skinner being bought out nobody would be talking about Jeff Skinner hitting the cliff or being you know completely shot he was and that was with an injured Tage Thompson that he was on Pace for 32 goals that was with an Alex tuu did see a regression in his uh in his goals uh and his shooting percentage skner was on Pace for 32 goals okay so what’s the lesson the lesson is what it’s always been with Jeff Skinner if you’re gonna have him on your team you got to play him in the top six there’s no other way around it if you want him on your team and you want him to produce you only have one choice he’s got to be in your top six you don’t have to play him on the first Power Play unit because he’s actually not a great power play player he was okay last year but he’s never been great at it five on five scoring in the top six that’s what you are getting from Jeff Skinner and it’s never been any different than that if you want to tell me okay well I don’t want him in the top six get him get him a better third line Center more skilled third line Center maybe that’s better than pton Krebs okay maybe that can work in a more specialized role but the lesson from last year is the guy scored goals at a similar clip to what he’s always scored goals at when he played with Thompson not rocket science this is not that complicated of a player he might feel like a complicated you know player because of the way ahead is kind of complicated he’s not complicated he’s never been complicated it’s always super easy with him if you play him with top players he’s going to come through for you if you play him with bad players he’s gonna stink that’s it more than other players for that if you play Sydney Crosby obviously a to the most extreme end of this play Crosby with bad Players He’ll still be Sydney Crosby he’ll still be great if you play Jack eel with bad players remember we used to play with Beno pulot on this team he’ll still be Jack eel if even like guys like Thomas vanck back in the day play Thomas vanck with whoever Luke Adam at Center he’ll still be Thomas vanck that’s not true of Jeff Skinner you can’t play Jeff Skinner with those guys and expect them to be Jeff Skinner because his deficiencies as we saw last year he’s not a guy that carries the puck into the Zone he’s not a guy that gets set up he’s not a guy that creates his own scoring chances all that often he’s not a very good player possessing the puck himself he gets the puck gets it off his stick quickly he’ll use his edges he’ll use his angles he will finish on the chances he has he’s a very high probability of finishing on a goal and he’s very good at cashing in on rebounds in front of the net so that’s Skinner we know this we’ve always known this it’s not rocket science I don’t think his season was as bad as we thought it was it always just comes down to utilization his Stats come down to that and because he played on a bottom six line at the end of last year largely with pton Krebs and Jordan Greenway that’s why you look at the numbers and you see the big the biggest regression from him that’s all it was it was they played him with bad players at the end and he doesn’t perform with bad players he never has he never will so what does that mean what does that mean for the future all of that being said I think there are two ways to go about this and only two I’m scared the Sabers are going to go a third route and it’s going to be very bad I’ll explain what I mean by that when we come back here on the locked on Savers podcast talking some Jeff Skinner here we are presented here on the show by Game Time download the game time app killer last minute deals all in prices you got some views from your seat their lowest price guarantee gain time ticks the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets last minute deals you can save up to 60% off buying last minute for sports concerts comedy theater and more all of those by the way are available sometimes not just up to the event but even an hour after the event if you’re looking to go late save even more of the exclusive in app deal select seats ahead of the game or event save even more when you choose a section and let game time choose your seats lowest price guarantee or game time will credit you 110% of the difference take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets with Game Time download the game time app create an account use the code locked on NHL for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again create an account redeem code locked on NHL for $20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed back here on the locked on Sabers podcast will the Buffalo Sabers buy out Jeff Skinner we’ll get into that in one second reminder if you’re looking for your NBA playoff coverage NHL playoff coverage NFL offseason check out locked on sports today a free 247 stream all always available on YouTube or the free Amazon Fire TV channels app Skinner and a buyout How likely is it and is it a good idea as I mentioned going into the break there I think there are only two options the saber should have for this guy and I’m afraid they’re going to pick a third let me start with the two paths that I think are acceptable one is to keep Jeff Skinner on the team play him with a skilled centerman and hope you get the top results play him in offensive zone starts you know power play if you want it I typically prefer him more in the second power play unit as opposed to the first don’t play him in three on three overtime use him in the right situations when you’re in the offensive zone and you’re taking the face off there get him on the ice and get him out there with a Tage Thompson or a Dylan cousins or a centerman to not being maybe Martin niches from Carolina don’t play him with Payton Krebs don’t play him with some fourth line centerman that you sign that scores 10 goals a year uh who did I have in my uh mock offseason a few weeks ago Teddy bler from Vancouver if you go sign Teddy bler to be your fourth line center from the Canucks do not play Jeff Skinner with that guy it’s not going to work in any way it’s not going to work offensively and it’s not going to work defensively that’s the what what not to do either play him in the top of the lineup with top centers that’s option one or option two is wipe your hands clean find a way to get them off the team and with his contract that’s going to be difficult but it shouldn’t be impossible Skinner has three years remaining on his contract at N9 million a year there are two ways to get him off the team one is a trade where you are giving somebody else something to take him I saw a couple weeks ago there was a Chicago blog that wrote about the possibility of the Blackhawks acquiring Jeff Skinner in a bit of a salary dump situation for him to come play with Conor Bard in their top six as they are starting to transition uh from a rebuilding team they want to be a little bit more competitive but they still are focused on getting future assets and the Chicago blog said two blurs with one stone give SK a better goal scorer than Bard had on his team last year he is no good Wingers so Skinner goes right to the Top Line with Bard and he’ll score goals with Connor Bard I guarantee you that Skinner would score 30 goals in Chicago at least with Conor Bard and two if you’re Chicago you get something in return for doing the Sabers a favor of taking the 9 million bucks I think they had like a second round pick I might think it takes more than that honestly because it’s such an investment but maybe that’s all it would take is is is a million bucks um that’s option one for uh getting Jeff Skinner off the team the other option is a straight buyout buying am out and that would be a six-year commitment and if you want to figure out what that is go to cap friendly hit the Skinner page you hit buy out the current contract see what it looks like and you have a six-year commitment it goes 1.4 million then 4.4 million then 6.4 million that’s the first three years very different you get a lot of cap relief right away $7.5 million of cap relief in year one 4.5 million that you’re taking out of year two Is Not Great the big key here is do the Sabers feel like in three years when they should be competing and competing in a big way do they want to be committing $6.4 million to somebody that not played on their team in three three years and then you have $2.4 million for three years after that three 2.4 million in each of 2028 2029 and 2030 a long period of time you have to commit if you want to buy them out also not impossible of the six years of buyout five of them are manageable but there’s that one real bad year 6.4 million in 2026 27 that I think could scare the Sabers off of doing it and maybe look to just keep them on the team for one more year and see how it goes those are the options with Jeff Skinner if I were to rank them I would saying my top option if you’re asking me I’m a Skinner Defender I like Skinner I think you got to use him in certain ways though my top option for Skinner is keep him on the team play him in the top six and cross your fingers that he doesn’t hit the wall completely option two is get them off the team either buy him out or trade him away with an asset to get somebody to take him option three is keep him on the team and play him in a depth roll I think that is the worst option that is going to be the biggest waste of time where you’re going to have the worst results and you’re going to be basically wasting a roster spot but this team wants to be more decisive they want to be more aggressive they want to be a tougher team to play against and Lindy’s coming in I wonder how Lindy will look at Skinner on one angle I might think Lindy was gon to want a certain type of player he’s gonna want to change the culture he’s gonna want to change how they play be tougher to play against little bit more uh I’m trying to think of the word Kevin Adams used um but whatever you know what I mean the type of player Lindy might want to build around Skinner doesn’t fit that but it’s not like Lindy has never coached a player like Skinner before who is very good offensively very poor defensively offensively it is the max ainan offs of the world it’s the alesh Kota leaks of the world there’s not a lot of them but there’s a few of them and um there’s a few of them and I do believe that that that is where Lindy is going to try to test things out uh with JF skanner is in that way today’s episode of the locked on Sabers podcast is presented by indeed indeed is the hiring platform where you can attract interview and hire all in one place instead of spending hours on multiple job sites searching for candidates with the right skills and deeds a powerful hiring platform that can help you do it all streamlining hiring with plat powerful tools that find you matched candidates with in match over 80% of employers get quality candidates whose resume on indeed matches their job description the moment they sponsor a job according to indeed data in the US even better indeed’s the only job site where you pay for applications that meet your musthave requirements indeed is an unbelievably powerful hiring platform delivering four times more hires than all the other job sites combined start hiring now with a $75 sponsored job credit to upgrade your job post at indeed.com loock on offer good for a limited time claim your $75 credit now at indeed.com lockon indeed.com lockon terms and conditions apply need to hire you need indeed back here on the locked on Sabers podcast with sneaky Joe debiasi if you are watching Along on our YouTube channel you might notice that I’m no longer wearing a white T-shirt I’m wearing the 1999 Eastern Conference Champion shirt for the for the Sabres uh we had electricians over at the house had to turn the power off for a little bit so I’m actually recording this hours after the first two segments talking about Jeff Skinner a little bit by the way I’m heading to Ireland tomorrow so we’ll be a little bit of a week or so here without an episode but I’ll have my phone on me and if there’s any type of breaking news with the Sabers if they trade for Martin niches in the next couple of weeks get you some breaking news content uh while I’m overseas in Ireland for uh for that uh that’s if that happens this is the slow season in the off season so I am definitely not expecting uh anything to happen with the Sabers in the next couple of weeks but you never know getting to Jordan Greenway on today’s show we talked about Skinner buyout options the probability that that could happen what it would look like Jordan Greenway his season and his future we’ll spend a segment here talking about Greenway and this is a player that is a hard evaluation for me because I think he was better than I was expecting this past season for uh for the reminder last year I hated Greenway when he first showed up for the Sabers did not like his game at all I thought he was supposed to be this high energy physical player and he’s physical no no doubt 6’6 231 PBS the big body is there but energy skating just no way man like super slow and didn’t seem like he was a high motor guy that’s always Chasing After You relentless on the four check those are the types of power forward energy guys in your bottom six that I think they should have a lot of um so green weight comes into this year and there are a couple of ways to look at his season for me there’s a positive and there’s a negative the positive is that Jordan Greenway did a very good job in the things that Jordan Greenway is good at or supposed to be good at Jordan Greenway is supposed to be a defensive forward that plays in your bottom six and this past season he was tremendous defensively he was a guy that dominated on their penalty kill he was somebody that five on five gave very good defensive results as well um Greenway if you look at his evolving hockey charts uh he was a 77th pertile Defender last year uh for the Buffalo Sabers 77th percentile Defender 21st percentile offense so he was definitely a onedimensional player uh for the Sabers last year his power play offense got way too many minutes did not perform in that regard um even strength the defense though one of the better forwards that the Sabers had in fact probably their best forward all year in that area but my problem with Greenway is while he was so good defensively he was asked to do way too much he was asked to be a scorer he was asked to be one of their most important players at times he was somebody that was on the ice several times this season when they were down one with minutes to go trying to tie the hockey game who was out there Thompson was out there tuck was out there and Dalene was out there and you had Byrum at the end of the season who was out there cousins would be out there and oh Greenway would be out there Jordan Greenway would be out there what’s what why is he over guys like Casey midad who would have been on the team uh Skinner of course uh Zack Benson if you want him how about PKA or Quinn in the few games that he played why was Green way getting the nod over those guys and it was usually because he’s going to stay in front of the net he’s going to be a net front presence but far too often he lurks outside of that area and there was one game on the road in the in the winter I can’t remember the exact opponent but I remember the moment where it’s a minute left and the Sabers have possession and they have an open shot at the right flank and who’s the guy taking the shot Jordan Greenway I didn’t even realized he was on the ice yet down one with a minute left in that situation and he of course the shot is nowhere near the net it’s a terrible shot no heat on it whatsoever maybe it was even blocked but whatever I remember thinking what is he doing out there who put him out there for that you’ve got big bodies you’ve got why can’t tuck stand in front of the net why Skinner is good in front of the net I know he’s small but Skinner is good in front of the net you don’t need Greenway for that you don’t need him in that situation his most common teammates this past season look at who was number one Casey midat one of their most skilled the their most consistently skilled Center all season long behind him Zack Benson Dylan cousins Alex tuck Tage Thompson those were greenway’s most common linemates at forward middle stat Benson cousins tuck Thompson way too skilled with way too many important core pieces that Greenway was being asked to play with then you got to Payton Krebs that’s more like it that was the guy he probably should have been playing with all year the problem with that is ky posto zus gearon are playing on your fourth line Greenway doesn’t have a spot but now aoso is gone hopefully gearson will be gone as well and Greenway should have in my opinion a roll on a bottom six line ideally with pton Krebs going forward go be a defensive only player no more asking him to score goals no more on the power play we know what he is he’s not that young of a player in fact he’s not really a young player at all he’s 27 years old he will not play much longer in the NHL not with that foot speed he won’t he has played seven years in the NHL and his career highing goals is 12 and that was six years ago he’s not going to give you more than what he just gave you and what he just gave you was 28 points not a guy that should ever be asked to play in offensive situations like he was put him in the bottom six and you’re fine now the future not just the role for Greenway in the future but the contract for Jordan Greenway he has one year remaining on his contract at $3 million at 28 years old as I just mentioned I think that foot speed is very concerning for his 30s not a guy I would want to sign back maybe on a one-year deal he is so good defensively he is such a good penalty killer if you can bring him back on a one-year deal for very cheap after this coming season I say you do it any type of commitment to Jordan Greenway I’m not into I would much rather see them replace Greenway with a player of similar size a big guy throws his body around six foot six but has more of the energy has more of the speed the tenacity that I think Greenway is really lacking he by the way is a modified no trade list eight teams so if for some reason the saber season’s gone off the rails again and we’re all mad again um could be a guy that’s available at the deadline and they get something for Jordan Greenway that’s a look at his season and what’s ahead all right I am off to Ireland again if something comes up we’ll check in I’ll keep I’ll keep tuned in do a lot of driving you know the the flights of course as well I’ll I’ll check in on the uh on the text line of course as well the the World Championships you’ve got and then there are trades that could be made Ryan McDon was just sent from Nashville to Tampa the other day so deals can be made but usually the floodgates don’t open until the end of the Stanley Cup Final and I’ll be back before the before the Stanley Cup Final I think even begins June 4th I fly back so enjoy everybody uh your nice weather your Memorial Day and uh hey I’m actually hopeful that we get some news for the Sabers because that would be of course fun for everybody thanks for listening to the lock on Sabers podcast making us your first listen every day day talk to you in a couple weeks here in the lockdown Sabers podcast part of the lockdown podcast Network your team every day

Jeff Skinner had a down year, but Sneaky Joe doesn’t think it was as bad as some fans think. That being said, will he be bought out? Joe dives in on Skinner’s numbers from this past year and how punitive buying out Skinner would be. Could a trade to a bad team willing to take on salary be possible?

Plus, evaluating Jordan Greenway’s season and his future with the Sabres.

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOSabres?sid=YouTube

Locked On NHL League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Prospects & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNHL

Follow on Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/SneakyJoeSports
Follow the show on Twitter https://mobile.twitter.com/LockedOnSabres

#NHL #Sabres #buffalosabres

Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
Indeed
There is no “I” in “team.” But there is one in “Indeed” and that’s the hiring platform you need to build yours. When you’re hiring, you need Indeed. Claim your SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT now at Indeed.com/LOCKEDON. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? You need Indeed.

Policygenius
Check life insurance off your to do list in no time with Policygenius. Head to policygenius.com/lockedonnhl to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you could save.

eBay Motors
For parts that fit, head to eBay Motors and look for the green check. Stay in the game with eBay Guaranteed Fit at eBayMotos.com. Let’s ride. eBay Guaranteed Fit only available to US customers. Eligible items only. Exclusions apply.

Gametime
Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNHL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.

FanDuel
FanDuel, America’s Number One Sportsbook. Right now, NEW customers get ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS with any winning GUARANTEED That’s A HUNDRED AND FIFTY BUCKS – with any winning FIVE DOLLAR BET! Visit FanDuel.com/LOCKEDON to get started.

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)