What’s next for the Sabres after buying out Jeff Skinner?

What’s next for the Sabres after buying out Jeff Skinner?

I’m Lance L sski the saers beat writer for the Buffalo News here with Mike Harrington and Mike we had a little bit of news at the end of the NHL draft didn’t we yeah the last question of Kevin Adams was about Jeff Skinner’s status in the wake of no trades wondering if that precluded a buyout no it did not as Adams announced uh the bombshell we were waiting for that in fact the initiation of the bio process has started and the Sab $9 million Winger is no longer going to on this club yeah not surprised right I mean as soon as they hired Lindy Ruff we wondered whether Jeff Skinner would fit with the way that Ruff wants to play and where this team needs to go especially given what we saw the last 30 games of this past season but Mike they just lost a 30 goal score they did on a team that was 23rd in the NHL and goals per game they’ve yet to add any any help Andrew mapani goes to the Washington Capitals we’ve got other players traded what are they going to do to fill the void that they just created in their lineup they did Now Kevin Adams big quote out of this the big takeaway is the offseason is still incomplete okay it’s fair I get that I’m not sure you’re gonna sign any free agents to come to Buffalo on a 13-year playoff drought maybe there’s more trades to be made um I understand what they’re doing with Jeff Skinner he did not have a good season I don’t think Jeff Skinner in any way shape or form is a Lindy Ruff player and I think Lindy Ruff is a big factor in this decision to Edison Jeff ski are off this roster and here’s the biggest thing to me Lance it’s a difficult situation you are taking goals away you are potentially injuring the power play You’re potentially just injuring the entire offense in general two things the first is they think they’re going to be better with Ruff as the coach and that they’re going to go back more to where they were a couple years ago and the second thing is here’s the bottom line that’s arguable here’s what’s not arguable Jeff Skinner is the only player in the history of the NHL to play over a thousand games in never make the playoffs and you know what a lot of that is on Jeff Skinner that’s not all on the teams he’s been on in Carolina and buffalo he is not a winning player he did not lift his team at any point in his career and it’s time to move on and ultimately whose mistake was this who signed Jeff Skinner for $9 million a year Terry thank you very much Jason Bobo got blamed for it but that was Terry P ownership made the mistake ownership has to sign off on the buyout too so he’s writing his own and they’re going to move on and see what happens and the decision to do this with Jeff Skinner also ties to the draft Mike because fans were not happy to see the sabes pick as many players as they did these past two days but doing so now gives them the ability to move prospects so there’s no longer any excuse because yes you can say we’re going to need players and entry-level contracts particularly when Jeff is counting $6.4 million against their C Fair Point in three years in three years right and this is all about getting the playoffs this coming season but the fact of you have players who are also going to replace the prospects that you’re trading now so the time is to make that trade you just made the point though the key point is that they save75 Million Dollar on their cap this year Kevin Adams doesn’t care about that $6.4 million cap H in three years because he’s not gonna have a job in three years and we’ve seen other teams navigate these sort of tricky situations with the cap over the last few years Minnesota is a prime example it doesn’t necessarily prevent you from being a contender it does decrease the margin for error when it comes to your offseason acquisitions and your Drafting and your developing as well you need these players who are young players to come in and make an impact so we’ll see what happens we you mention it free agent Market is going to be very don’t count on it all right they they’re going to add depth players they added a fourth liner today Beck molon which they got for a second round pick we’ll see what happens there they think they can get more out of him a good player for the Hershey Bears during their run of the cder cup a year ago so potentially replacement for Zenus Genson yeah I mean at this point why would you bring Zenus Genson back I know they love them ownership loves him it’s been a decade isn’t it time to move on from zi gurgenson at this point yeah bring in bring in some new voices and new and and create an opportunity for players like rasman stallen to become more prominent leaders in that room to feel more conf confident and speaking up in different situations but my when we’re talking about Jeff Skinner though and the need for a top six Winger you look around the league at who’s available the Jets already said Nikolai eers isn’t going anywhere so that leads me me to believe Mike pure speculation that Martin hes has to be the Sabers target has to be the Target because that is the top forward available in the trade market he’s a restricted free agent fits with their timeline a guy they’d be able to sign to a bridge deal to possibly lead into a longer term extent mention they have the Futures they have everything they need to to possibly get this player and now we’ll see if they can make a deal because then we were talking last summer Mike that are they gonna do something are they gonna do something they gonna do it and it never happened and there’s no choice they that can’t happen this time around especially after they did this with Jeff Skinner no they rolled it back last year and thought they were good and they weren’t good they weren’t good enough at all now they’re running out Jeff Skinner they’re buying him out they’re going to have to transform this roster quickly again Kevin Adams is no longer in building mode he is in win now must build the team this year mode or he’s out of a job that’s just the bottom line he’s not going to be the GM of this team next year if they don’t make the playoffs again they have to replace Jeff Skinner with an NHL NHL caliber player not With Yuri Kulik not with somebody from Rochester it’s got to be an NHL trade it’s not gonna be a free agent but the Martin hes situation to me 25 years old looks like the play for the Buffalo Sabers he has to get it done unrestricted free agency starts Monday at noon Sab development Camp running at the same time through Thursday there’s no offseason trade deadline so we’ll see what happens I’m Lance lowski he’s Mike Harrington see you next time

Lance Lysowski and Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News react to the Sabres buying out Jeff Skinner and everything else the team has done at the draft in Las Vegas.