Buffalo Sabres: Revisiting the Jeff Skinner trade 5 years later

The Buffalo Sabres traded for Jeff Skinner five years ago today. Let’s revisit the trade and how great it was for Buffalo and going forward.

Where were you on August 2nd, 2018? I can tell you where I was. I was at dinner celebrating my parents’ birthdays. After ordering, I got out my phone and looked on Twitter. When I refreshed, I saw this pop up.

I had to do a double take because I thought it was fake. On this day in 2018, the Sabres got Jeff Skinner in exchange for Cliff Pu, a 2019 2nd round pick, a 2020 3rd round pick, and a 2020 6th round pick.

In his last season with the Carolina Hurricanes, Skinner scored 24 goals and registered 25 assists in 82 games played. The following season with the Sabres, Skinner scored a career high 40 goals and recorded 23 assists in 82 games.

With his play, Skinner earned himself a 8 year $72 million contract extension. People questioned the contract, despite Jeff putting up 40 goals for the first time in his career. That’s when things started to go downhill.

In the next two seasons combined, he scored 21 goals and got 16 assists. Obviously those years were affected by COVID-19 but Jeff was not performing well. It got so bad when Ralph Krueger was around that Skinner was either benched or on the last line.

I don’t know what beef him and Ralph had but it was not good as Krueger would give backhanded compliments to Jeff after games. Once Krueger got fired, players started to play better including Skinner.

Buffalo Sabres trade for Jeff Skinner worth it under Don Granato

In Don Granato’s first full season with the Sabres, Skinner was back to being a talented player. In 80 games played, he scored 33 goals and recorded 30 assists. Then last season, he scored 35 times and registered 47 assists for 82 points, his best point total of his career.

I still remember fans, Sabres and other teams, saying how he didn’t deserve the contract. I bet you those fans are second guessing themselves now. Jeff has established himself with Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch as the Sabres first line.

Looking back on this day, it’s crazy how the Buffalo Sabres got Jeff for what they gave up. He’s going to be a huge reason why the Blue and Gold continues to be one of the highest scoring teams in the league and hopefully, one of the main reasons why Buffalo breaks their playoff drought.

(Historical data provided by Hockey-Reference)