Jeff Skinner, Patrik Laine, And Ilya Mikheyev

Nothing Is Off The Table Including Jeff Skinner

Lance Lysowski of Buffalo News: Exploring the idea of buying out Jeff Skinner is not so crazy. There remain three years on the deal. Now, that means a buyout would last six years. It provides a considerable savings with Year 1 but does become a bit costly in Year 2 ($4.44 million).

If Skinner’s contract indeed comes off the books, Kevyn Adams will have to get aggressive to acquire a top-six winger. Adams must win, Lindy Ruff knows Buffalo must win, and naturally the heat is on.

Yes, a trade is difficult with Skinner’s no-movement clause. Furthermore, what if Buffalo cannot find a replacement? Jack Quinn could score 30 goals but can he stay healthy? Ironically, Skinner was banged up for most of the second half (probably effects of that upper body injury around Christmas).

NHL Rumors: More on Jeff Skinner

This will become quite interesting. Lindy Ruff needs goal scorers to make this work. Ideally, there are plenty of question marks with this Buffalo offense as it is. Can players bounce back from lackluster seasons or was last year more the norm?

It all boils down to if Adams wants to save almost $8 million in cap space to go spend. Almost.

Patrik Laine And The Montreal Canadiens?

Eric Engels of Sportsnet (mailbag): Everyone wants to explore the idea of Patrik Laine being motivated and involved with their team. That includes the Montreal Canadiens. There has been some speculation the past 30+ goal scorer could wind up there.

NHL Rumors: Patrik Laine, Mitch Marner, and More

Now, Laine can choose ten teams he does not want to be moved to. Montreal realistically is a pressure cooker of a market. Would Laine really want to go there? Winnipeg and Columbus were not exactly pressure-personified.

Laine’s market could get squeezed a bit by Jake Guentzel and even Jeff Skinner (if Skinner gets bought out).

Laine would provide instant power play help and simply would have to just fire and shoot.