Buffalo Sabres 2023-24 Outlook: Jeff Skinner (Ageless Wonder)

It’s hard to believe Jeff Skinner is one of the Buffalo Sabres oldest skaters, but he is still one of the most productive on the team.

Before 2022-23, Buffalo Sabres winger Jeff Skinner never put up spectacular numbers, having scored a career high 63 points on four separate occasions. They were solid numbers, and at times, you can even argue they were more than that, like his 40-goal season in 2018-19.

Last season, it’s safe to say Skinner was knocking on the door to elite status, having recorded 82 points and 35 goals. So will the 31-year-old continue to maintain that production in 2023-24? Put it this way: Skinner has built so much chemistry with Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch and he remains in the thick of his prime, so don’t expect much, if any drop-off here because of age.

Jeff Skinner will enjoy another remarkable outing for the Buffalo Sabres

The trio of Skinner, Tage, and Tuch just keep getting better as they enter their second full year as linemates and their third overall, as they also played alongside one another for a significant portion of 2021-22. Therefore, the trio will remain one of the NHL’s productive units until opponents prove they can stop them.

However, I see a drop-off in productivity with Skinner, simply because he, along with Tage and Tuch, won’t need to score so much this season. Erik Johnson and Connor Clifton will improve the defensive rotation, and despite his small sample size, Devon Levi has already shown he can be at least a serviceable goaltender in the early going.

Further, Dylan Cozens is emerging into a star, and if J.J. Peterka picks up where he left off following the IIHF Worlds (something Cozens did last year), then you will see more output from the duo, along with presumably Casey Mittelstadt. That said, I wouldn’t be shocked if Skinner scored somewhere between 60 and 70 points as a result.

But as implied, don’t take this as a decline because of his age and the fact he will be playing in his 14th NHL season. Instead, the drop-off comes because the Buffalo Sabres, as a whole, will be a better team.

(Statistics provided by Hockey-Reference)