While Skinner’s massive $9 million dollar contract has been an anchor for the Buffalo Sabres, it may actually provide some financial, and on ice value to the Blackhawks.

The Chicago Blackhawks have salary cap space and a need to add veteran talent. The Buffalo Sabres need to get out of a bad contract.

For years Jeff Skinner’s contract has been looked on as an exemplar of what not to do when negotiating with a player. Skinner had a terrific season way back in 2017-2018 with Carolina, when he scored 40 goals and earned himself a raise. However, Buffalo badly overpaid for his services, betting on the fact that he would remain a near 40-goal scorer based on one excellent year.

Unfortunately for them, he regressed.

In the following two seasons, Skinner has scored a total of 21 goals and 16 assists while missing a chunk of time. Those were the COVID-19 years, but even considering the unusual circumstances created by the pandemic, Skinner’s massive $9 million deal suddenly looked like the single worst contract in all of the NHL.

Thankfully for Skinner, that wasn’t the end of the story. Since those terrible years he has actually enjoyed several highly respectable seasons, putting up two 30-goal seasons in the last three years. So, the question becomes, is he really worth that $9 million cap hit? Well, no. At least not to the Sabres.

The Sabres and Blackhawks are two teams in two very different places.

The Sabres are on the rise and they have several young players (most notably Bowen Byram, and Zach Benson) that they will need cap space in order to resign in the next few seasons. It seems like they could really use to move out a big money contract like Jeff Skinner’s in order to make room for the young and exciting prospects that they have developed.

It also makes sense for the Blackhawks as the team is looking to do the following…

A) Add veteran players to complement the young core.
B) Add a top 6 scoring threat.
C) Reach the salary cap floor.
D) Take on contracts no more than two to three years in length so as not to hinder the future cap space needed to resign Bedard, Korchinski, Nazar, and the rest of our young prospects.

Skinner does carry a “No Movement Clause” in his contract which could make this deal very tricky.

I think that the Sabres would definitely want to move him, but Skinner might be open to a move as well. This is especially true if Davidson can sell him on the prospect of playing with Connor Bedard in a great city like Chicago, and putting up huge numbers. Those numbers may even earn him another handsome pay day when this current deal is done. Therefore, I think it is certainly worth a phone call to see if he is interested.

The Blackhawks are in a great position to make this move due to the overabundance of cap space that they have available to them next season. According to Capfriendly.com, the Blackhawks will have over $33 million of cap space to work with this offseason, so fitting in a 9-million-dollar cap hit for the next three seasons is actually very manageable.

In fact, taking on Skinner’s contract will make Kyle Davidson’s job easier, as he will not need to struggle to overpay players just to reach the cap floor as he did last offseason. Rather he can look for good players at fair market value that will benefit the team in both the short, and long term.

What type of offer could the Blackhawks make for Jeff Skinner?

I think fair trade value would be a second-round draft pick and maybe a mid-tier prospect like Aiden Thompson for Skinner. Remember that in deals that are essentially salary dumps, the team dumping salary rarely gets much in return because the real value they are gaining is cap space. The fact that the sabres wouldn’t need to retain any salary on this deal could drive down the asking price for them as well.

Finally, Skinner has proven in the past few seasons that he is far from a washed-up player. He is a solid, legitimate top-six forward who could play on a wing with Connor Bedard or Frank Nazar and make their lives easier as they grow into the best versions of themselves as players.

Imagine a top line of Taylor Hall, Connor Bedard, Philip Kurashev, and then a second line of Jeff Skinner, Frank Nazar, and Lukas Reichel (or another player you bring in as a free agent). Suddenly the Hawks look like a more legitimate threat night in and night out.

This move wouldn’t make sense for most teams, but most teams are not in the strange position that the Blackhawks are in. Adding Jeff Skinner would improve the teams on ice performace, provide veteran leadership and stability in the locker room for the younger players, and allow the Blackhawks to easily hit the cap floor and make Davidson’s job easier. It’s a win, win, win, and hopefully the Hawks will be doing more actual winning as a result of it.