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Jeff Skinner

East Notes: Skinner, Bruins, Samsonov

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While the Sabres will likely try to add to their roster between now and the trade deadline as they continue to chase down a playoff spot, their focus at the moment is dealing with one of their own players.  In an appearance on WGR 550 (audio link), TSN’s Darren Dreger indicated that the top priority for GM Jason Botterill is getting an extension done with pending UFA winger Jeff Skinner.  The 26-year-old is among the league leaders in goals with 30 and is on pace to set new career highs in goals and points.  That has him poised to land a significant raise on his current $5.725MM AAV, something that Buffalo would clearly like to have wrapped up sooner than later.

More from the Eastern Conference:

  • The Bruins have a pair of distinct needs in a third line center and a second line winger. Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic suggests (subscription required) that the strong showing from recently-recalled winger Peter Cehlarik should help push Boston in the direction of addressing the vacancy down the middle first.  While he’s only a couple of games in, the early returns are promising while the team has other young players that they can use on the wing in the top six if need be.  However, that depth isn’t as plentiful at center and if GM Don Sweeney only has enough trade capital to address one of those holes, Shinzawa believes it should be that one.  Cehlarik continuing his strong start would make that decision much easier.
  • It has been a rough first season in North America for Capitals goalie prospect Ilya Samsonov. He has posted a 3.40 GAA and a .871 SV% in 19 games with AHL Hershey but the team doesn’t appear to be too concerned.  Speaking with reporters including J.J. Regan of NBC Sports Washington, GM Brian MacLellan stated that Samsonov is about where they expected him to be in his rookie year, acknowledging that they figured he’d be up and down throughout the year.  Based on how he has performed though, it’s hard to envision them bringing him up for next season with Pheonix Copley set to become an unrestricted free agent so Washington will likely have to either re-sign or replace Copley via the open market this summer.

Buffalo Sabres Expected To Start Negotiations With Jeff Skinner “Pretty Soon”

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It is a pretty exciting day for Buffalo Sabres forward Jeff Skinner, who was just announced as the “Last Man In” to the 2019 All-Star game just hours before taking on his former team. The Carolina Hurricanes traded Skinner away last summer after a new management group took over, and the talented forward has responded by putting up 29 goals through his first 43 games for the Sabres, the best pace of his entire career.

That pace is coming at the perfect time for Skinner, who is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. That status likely helped inform the decision to trade him, but the Sabres have always believed they could sign him to an extension at some point. Now, as Skinner is in the news for all the right reasons today, Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News tweets that the Sabres are expected to start contract negotiations “pretty soon” with their All-Star forward.

One of the very first things that Buffalo GM Jason Botterill did after taking over the franchise in 2017 was hand out an eight-year, $80MM extension to Jack Eichel and he very well may come close to that with his next big long-term deal. Skinner has the advantage of being a pending unrestricted free agent and has plenty of leverage over the Sabres, so when salary numbers around $8.5-9MM were floated earlier this season it was easy to understand. While it may not get quite that high, investing heavily into a 26-year old forward who has found great chemistry with the face of your franchise and very well could score 50 goals in his first season in town makes a lot of sense.

It’s important to note that Skinner cannot technically sign an eight-year extension until after this season’s trade deadline passes, though he can obviously agree to one in principle beforehand. One would have to believe that is where negotiations are headed, given it is basically the only piece of leverage the Sabres have. If Skinner hits the open market in July, he would only be able to sign a seven-year deal.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

NHL Announces “Last Men In” For 2019 All-Star Game

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The votes have been counted, and the final four players for the 2019 All-Star game have been announced. The “Last Men In” this year are Jeff Skinner (Atlantic), Kris Letang (Metropolitan), Gabriel Landeskog (Central) and Leon Draisaitl (Pacific).

While this was obviously a fan vote, it does come with some interesting consequences. First of all, it means that the Montreal Canadiens will not have a representative included at the event, after Carey Price decided to pull out due to nagging injuries. Shea Weber was up for the Atlantic fan vote but lost to Skinner, leaving Montreal on the outside looking in while also having to sit Price for at least one game.

There will also be plenty of deserving candidates that have been left out, perhaps most notably Mark Giordano and Morgan Rielly who look ready to challenge for the Norris Trophy this year given their outstanding offensive production. Giordano’s team will in fact only have a single representative at the event despite the Calgary Flames currently being in first place in the entire Western Conference and second in the NHL.

Still, all four of these players are deserving of accolades this season and were obviously the fan favorites. That’s what the All-Star game is all about, and the crowd in San Jose will surely be pleased to see the incredible talents each can bring. The game is set for January 26th.

“Last Man In” All-Star Ballot Candidates Announced

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The NHL has already announced the initial ten-man All-Star rosters for each of the four divisions, but new this year is an additional fan ballot to add an eleventh and final member to each squad. The “Last Man In” ballot, an idea invented by Major League Baseball, pits one skater from each team in each division against one another for a chance to participate in All-Star festivities. Fans will decide, with online voting opening tomorrow and lasting until midnight ET on January 10, which of the following players will get the final nod:

Pacific Division

F Leon Draisaitl (EDM)
F Logan Couture (SJS)
F Anze Kopitar (LAK)
F Ryan Getzlaf (ANA)
F Brock Boeser (VAN)
F Jonathan Marchessault (VGK)
D Mark Giordano (CGY)
D Oliver Ekman-Larsson (ARI)

Central Division

F Gabriel Landeskog (COL)
F Zach Parise (MIN)
F Patrik Laine (WPG)
F Tyler Seguin (DAL)
F Vladimir Tarasenko (STL)
F Filip Forsberg (NSH)
F Jonathan Toews (CHI)

Atlantic Division

F Brayden Point (TBL)
F Jeff Skinner (BUF)
F Dylan Larkin (DET)
F Aleksander Barkov (FLA)
F Patrice Bergeron (BOS)
F Mark Stone (OTT)
D Morgan Rielly (TOR)
D Shea Weber (MTL)

Metropolitan Division

F Nicklas Backstrom (WSH)
F Kyle Palmieri (NJD)
F Anders Lee (NYI)
F Jakub Voracek (PHI)
F Teuvo Teravainen (CAR)
F Nick Foligno (CLB)
F Mats Zuccarello (NYR)
D Kris Letang (PIT)

Due to the limits on selections by team, both in the initial rosters and the “Last Man In” vote, there are several star players who cannot be saved by fan voting this year. The Toronto Maple Leafs’ Mitch Marner, the No. 6-ranked scorer in the league, highlights the snub group, which also includes Calgary Flames forwards Sean Monahan and Matthew Tkachuk, Pittsburgh Penguins forwards Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel, and Minnesota Wild defenseman Ryan Suter. Other odd omissions, not necessarily forced by the format, are Columbus’ Artemi Panarin, Nashville’s Ryan Johansen, and Montreal’s Max Domi and Jeff Petry. However, the new final vote option does largely do a good job of giving each team and their fan base one last chance to get a deserving player into the All-Star game.

Buffalo Sabres Unlikely To Pursue Rental Players

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The Buffalo Sabres have experienced a franchise rejuvenation this season, going from last place in the entire league to must-see hockey on a nightly basis. The team sits third place in the Atlantic Division with a two-point lead over the Boston Bruins, and are one of the most exciting groups in the entire NHL to watch. The additions of forwards like Vladimir Sobotka, Conor Sheary and most importantly Jeff Skinner have spread out their offense and allowed them to roll dangerous lines out on a more consistent basis. That early success has led some to wonder if the team will cash in some of their future assets to pour gasoline on the rebuild, acquiring rental players at the deadline to help along the 2019 playoff push. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet throws some cold water on that fire, saying that he’s heard the opposite. Buffalo isn’t looking for rentals, but could be interested in more young players under team control.

Speculation will continue to run rampant because of the Sabres’ stocked draft cupboard. The team holds three first-round picks in the upcoming draft, including those from the San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues. While the Blues pick could potentially be pushed to 2020 if St. Louis ends up with a top-10 selection, the Sabres are still set to add some big pieces to their future in June. Adding more talented prospects to a rebuild that is already obviously heading in the right direction is fun, but if the team believes they can compete in the short term there might be reason to buy at the deadline.

Interestingly though, the Sabres actually could be in a position to be one of the biggest sellers if they so chose. While they hope to re-sign Skinner to a long-term deal, he would be one of the most sought after commodities on the market if put up for sale. The 26-year old forward is a pending unrestricted free agent and is experiencing a career renaissance in Buffalo, registering 21 goals through his first 31 games. Even Jason Pominville, now 35, could draw some interest despite his hefty cap hit. That $5.6MM number looks a lot smaller as the deadline approaches, and with 18 points in 29 games there is obviously still talent there. Nathan Beaulieu, Jake McCabe, Zemgus Girgensons and Johan Larsson are all pending restricted free agents with unclear futures in Buffalo, while veteran defensemen like Marco Scandella and Zach Bogosian are only under contract for one more season.

Obviously the Sabres won’t trade away the whole team if they’re in a position to make the playoffs, but it will be interesting to see what happens if they struggle over the next two months. Despite their success the team is still very early in a rebuild that could end up putting them among the league’s elite if done correctly, but there is no clear blue print on how that is done.

Sabres Not Currently Active On The Trade Market

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The Sabres have been one of the biggest surprises around the NHL in the early going this season.  Instead of being on the outside looking in at a playoff spot, they have one of the top records in the league.  With that in mind, some have wondered if Buffalo may want to start looking to add to their roster.  In an appearance on WGR 550 (audio link), TSN’s Darren Dreger indicated that GM Jason Botterill isn’t engaged in any significant trade talks at the moment.

Instead, the focus in the short-term appears to be focusing on extension talks with pending UFA winger Jeff Skinner.  Last month, it was reported that talks on a new deal would start sometime this month but Dreger notes that the Sabres intend to slow play these discussions.  Skinner is among the league leaders in goals this season and is positioned to land a substantial raise on his current $6MM salary.

Unlike some teams that are tighter to the salary cap, Buffalo has plenty of long-term flexibility.  The team has just shy of $56MM committed for next season per CapFriendly with just 13 players under contract.  Even if they get Skinner locked up, they’ll still have lots of space for next season.  However, their injuries have used up most of their cap room for this year as they’ve routinely been carrying well over 23 players on their roster as a result.  That certainly limits their ability to get a trade done in the short term.

As a result of their cap space beyond this season, when Botterill does decide to pursue help via trade, he won’t be restricted to the rental market and will be able to look at longer-term commitments.  Given where they are in terms of their roster setup, a multi-year addition may be the better way to go.  But until they get a read on Skinner’s situation and free up some extra cap room once some of their injured players return, the Sabres will be staying away from making any trades.

What Your Team Is Thankful For: Buffalo Sabres

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As the holiday season approaches, PHR will take a look at what teams are thankful for as the season heads past the one-quarter mark. There also might be a few things your team would like down the road. Let’s take a look at what’s gone well in the early going and what could improve as the season rolls on for the Buffalo Sabres. 

What are the Sabres most thankful for?

Can Sabres’ fans be any more thankful for the fact that the team, the same team that finished last in the standings one season ago, is currently in first place in the entire NHL with 34 points. That may be short lived as several teams just beneath them play before the Sabres go for their 10th straight win on Tuesday, but few could have predicted the success for second-year general manager Jason Botterill and head coach Phil Housley this season.

The Sabres shook up their entire roster from a year ago and made critical additions at every level, which included adding Jeff Skinner to their top line on offense, adding a number of solid players to their depth chart including Vladimir Sobotka, Patrik Berglund, Casey Mittelstadt, Conor Sheary and Tage Thompson, while adding 2018 first-overall pick Rasmus Dahlin (who has been as good as advertised) on defense. That doesn’t include the team’s success in goal. Those moves have stabilized the team’s defense as they ranked sixth in the league in goals against this year as well as having one of the best penalty killing units in the league as well.

Who are the Sabres most thankful for?

While it would make sense to put Skinner and his 18 goals in this spot, we can save him for later. The tandem that has really impressed this year has been the play of the Sabres goaltenders Carter Hutton and Linus Ullmark. The team, which struggled a year ago with Robin Lehner and Chad Johnson has thrived this year. Much of that could be the improvement of the team’s defense, but at the same time both goalies have been better than anyone had expected.

While Hutton was the top goaltender on the market this offseason, most people felt that Hutton was not capable of being a No. 1 goaltender, often comparing him to Carolina’s Scott Darling. However, Hutton has been better than advertised, already netting 11 wins and posting a solid 2.53 GAA and a .919 save percentage in 18 appearances. The untested Ullmark also has looked good, although the team has been careful to not overwhelm the 25-year-old. However in five appearances, he’s also posted a 2.52 GAA and an even more impressive .926 save percentage.

What would the Sabres be even more thankful for?

More production from their youth. The team is very young and is loaded with talent at the AHL level as well. And while players like Dahlin have been impressive, the team could take another step in the right direction if they can develop some of their young core even quicker. Dahlin has played well sharing No. 1 defenseman duties with Rasmus Ristolainen, but he’s capable of even more. The team has gotten just four goals from Mittelstadt and would like to see him develop into a consistent presence in the top six at some point.

Others like Thompson, who has suddenly starting showing off some offense with three goals in his last four games, as well as Evan Rodrigues need to continue to develop as well to allow the team to reach peak efficiency both now and in the future. The team is also loaded with a number of prospects including defensemen Lawrence Pilut and Brendan Guhle, while they have several potential options at forward as well in C.J. Smith, Daniel O’Regan and Alexander Nylander waiting for an opportunity.

What should be on the Sabres’ Holiday Wish List?

The team has made it clear they intend to work on an extension with Skinner next month, but the team really needs to make sure it can lock down the 26-year-old who leads the team in scoring this year and is only six goals away from beating his 24 goals from last season with Carolina. Skinner’s deal will be the main contract the team must deal with this offseason as the team has just three unrestricted free agents (Jason Pominville and Matt Moulson being the others). Skinner’s pairing with Jack Eichel has produced a powerful top line in the NHL and should only get better as the two continue to get comfortable with each other.

With the expiring contracts of Moulson and Pominville, although the team may want to attempt to retain the latter, there should be plenty of money to lock up Skinner now, so they won’t have to worry about him losing him this summer.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Jeff Skinner, Buffalo Sabres Expected To Start Extension Talks Next Month

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The Buffalo Sabres are on a roll, and a lot of their recent success can be traced back to Jeff Skinner. The talented winger is on pace for 55 goals this season and is an early candidate for steal of the offseason after coming over to Buffalo for the low price of three non-first-round draft picks and prospect Cliff Pu. If the Sabres can convince Skinner to re-sign in Buffalo the trade will look even better, at least if they can get him at a reasonable cap hit. That’s what made the report earlier this month that Skinner was looking for a salary upwards of $9MM per season a little scary, given that the team may not want to commit that much cap space to a player so early into their rebuild.

As we wrote when the report surfaced, the salary figure seemed like an attempt from the Skinner camp to use their early leverage—the kind that they earned from him playing so well this season—to frame upcoming negotiations. It wasn’t clear if the two sides were even talking yet, something we were given more clarity on today. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweets that the two sides haven’t discussed anything but they will get together next month to discuss where Skinner’s future lies. Obviously it’s not clear where exactly that original number came from, but you can bet that the Sabres want to get into a room with their leading goal scorer before making any judgement on whether they’ll be able to fit him in.

Skinner, 26, is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent less than two months after his 27th birthday and would be an attractive option for basically the entire league. Though he obviously wore out his welcome in some way for the Carolina Hurricanes, there was little doubt he could still be an effective scoring option in the NHL. Skinner now has 219 goals through his first 601 NHL games, a rate that puts him just a hair under 30 per season. The fact that he’s scheduled to hit the market at such a relatively young age is extremely appealing for anyone looking to invest heavily in him, hoping that they’ll have four, perhaps five seasons of very good production.

Among those teams interested though will surely be the Sabres, who are experiencing real success for the first time in years. Skinner has been a big part of that, and with other young players still on their way there is lots to look forward to in Buffalo. Jack Eichel’s $10MM cap hit already eats up a lot of their salary structure, but other than that contract they’re relatively free of long-term commitments. There’s work to be done down the road with extensions for Sam Reinhart, Rasmus Dahlin and Casey Mittelstadt, but getting Skinner under extension would give them some cost (and scoring) certainty to build around.

Poll: Can David Pastrnak Reach Sixty Goals This Season?

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Entering this season, Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak had already established himself as a star in the NHL. A steal of a draft pick at 25th overall in 2014, Pastrnak stepped right into the Bruins’ lineup that season and never looked back. In 2016-17, he truly broke out with 70 points in 75 games and followed that up with an 80-point campaign last year. Pastrnak scored 34 and 35 goals respectively in those two seasons and seemed destined to improve on that mark as his game continued to mature.

However, no one saw this start coming. Even with all of his early career accomplishments, Pastrnak has never led the Bruins in scoring and was considered by most to be the third-best player on his own line (albeit the NHL’s best line). There were expectations that he could continue to develop and that the goals may come more easily, but Pastrnak’s current clip is relatively unheard of in today’s NHL. Through 20 games, Pastrnak has recorded 17 goals and leads the league my a considerable margin. Tied for second are Brayden Point of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Jeff Skinner of the Buffalo Sabres, who each have just 14 goals and both skated in their 21st game tonight.

While Pastrnak has made a pretty strong case for himself as the Rocket Richard favorite a quarter of the way through the season, is he on his way to a historic season. If Pastrnak keeps up his current goal scoring rate through all 82 games – and he has played in all but seven of 182 regular season and postseason games over the past two years – he would net 70 goals this season. Even assuming he doesn’t play every game or his otherworldly clip falls off, 60 goals is still reasonable for Pastrnak this season. Only twenty different players have ever scored 60+ goals in an NHL season, some multiple times, but it has become increasingly infrequent over time. Since the turn of the century, only two players have reached the mark. Alex Ovechkin scored 65 goals in 2007-08 and Steven Stamkos just narrowly reached 60 goals in 2011-12. The only other player to get remotely close since 2000 was Hall of Famer Pavel Bure with 59 in 2000-01. The days of 60-goal scorers seemed to have passed, but Pastrnak has an actual shot this year.

Other than a possible injury or cold streak, working against Pastrnak could actually be his all-world line mates. Patrice Bergeron, currently sidelined with an upper-body injury, is 33 years old and has had his fair share of injury concerns over the past couple of years. With Bergeron out of the lineup on Saturday night, head coach Bruce Cassidy re-shuffled the lines, separating Pastrnak and Brad Marchand by mixing them in with a middle-six group that, while talented, has been inconsistent and relatively ineffective this year. Bergeron’s availability could dictate Pastrnak’s scoring capacity this season. The same goes for Marchand, who has been well-behaved by his standards thus far, but could be suspended for a substantial amount of time given his history if he was to slip up. Pastrnak independently is an excellent player who does not necessarily need to exclusively play with elite players to be productive. However, to keep up a pace of close to a goal per game, Pastrnak will need the help of Bergeron and Marchand as often as possible.

What do you think? Are we seeing history in the making or just a hot start? Can Pastrnak really crack 60 goals?

Jeff Skinner Looking For Big Raise After Strong Start

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The 2019 unrestricted free agent class was supposed to be extremely deep and productive. Tyler Seguin, Drew Doughty, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and many others were scheduled to hit the open market in a wave of superstars that we had never seen before. Those players have already signed long-term extensions though, and others should be expected to follow suit. That leaves the amount of actually game-changing players available next summer drastically reduced, giving those who remain unsigned some additional leverage in contract negotiations. That leverage was on display today when Jeremy White of WGR Buffalo radio tweeted that Jeff Skinner’s early ask is an eight-year contract extension somewhere between $9.0-9.5MM per season. He’s currently on the last season of a six-year deal that carries a $5.725MM cap hit, and has a full no-movement clause.

There is obviously still plenty of work to be done in a potential extension of that magnitude, especially given that the Sabres can’t technically sign Skinner to an eighth year until after this season’s trade deadline. That salary number shows how the market has shrunk, and reflects on Skinner’s outstanding performance early this year. After being acquired by the Sabres this summer, the 26-year old sniper is off to the best start of his career, scoring 14 goals and 21 points in his first 20 games. That is a 57-goal pace for the season, and though it seems extremely unlikely he reaches those heights he is obviously enjoying playing with his talented new linemates. It’s not like Skinner hasn’t been an effective goal scorer in the past, as the seventh-overall pick from 2010 scored 31 as a teen-aged rookie and has twice broken the 30-goal mark since then. His career high came in 2016-17 when he recorded 37 goals in just 79 games with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Buffalo meanwhile have gotten off to a strong start after huge changes to their roster in the offseason. Not only did Skinner join the forward group, but Ryan O’Reilly and other assets were traded away for additional players like Vladimir Sobotka, Patrik Berglund, Tage Thompson and Conor Sheary, while Casey Mittelstadt and Rasmus Dahlin have become full-time options as rookies.

Skinner has fit in beautifully in Buffalo, but there should be some pause before handing out a market-setting extension like the one proposed. The Sabres already have $10MM per season locked into captain Jack Eichel, and have to be sure that they’re handing out their next big deal to the right player. If young options like Mittelstadt and Dahlin develop as expected, it won’t be long until there needs to be ample cap space to get them under long-term deals of their own. That’s not to say that Skinner isn’t a desirable asset though, as the early start he was given in the NHL means he’ll reach unrestricted free agent status less than two months after his 27th birthday. Paying a UFA is always dangerous, but the risk is at least reduced somewhat when they are that young.

For now, the Sabres are likely just focused on their game tonight against the Pittsburgh Penguins and their spot in the Atlantic Division. Buffalo sits third in the standings behind the Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs, and well within the playoff race through a quarter of the season. With a 12-6-2 record and a positive goal differential, there is likely plenty of good will to spread around among the team’s newcomers. GM Jason Botterill and company will have some tough decisions coming up, but at least they are how to improve an already improving team, and no longer how to maximize their odds in the NHL draft lottery.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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