After being buyout, Jeff Skinner joins the Edmonton Oilers.
Jeff Skinner signed a one-year contract with the Edmonton Oilers, a team that was one win away from winning the Stanley Cup, following his buyout by the Buffalo Sabres, a franchise that has missed the playoffs for 13 straight years.
After the Sabres bought out the last three years of Skinner’s eight-year contract, which paid $9 million a year, he signed with the Oilers. For his one-year contract with the Oilers, Skinner will receive $3 million.
As the Stanley Cup runners-up entered free agency, their main concern was finding forwards who could contribute at a price that would fit their budget.
The Oilers bought off goaltender Jack Campbell for the remaining three years of his contract, which paid him $5 million a year, as one method of freeing up salary cap space.
With seven forwards who are unrestricted free agents, including Warren Foegele, who inked a three-year contract with the Los Angeles Kings, Edmonton was expected to lose some of these players when they hit free agency on Monday.
Two of those seven UFAs, Connor Brown and Corey Perry, were re-signed by the Oilers to one-year contracts worth a total $2.15 million. They then agreed to a two-year, $4 million-a-year contract with Kings forward Viktor Arvidsson. They also signed Josh Brown, a defenseman, to a three-year contract worth $1 million each year.
Subsequently, the Oilers reportedly finalized a new agreement for Mattias Janmark, whereby the forward will return on a three-year contract valued at $1.45 million each year.
And just when it seemed the Oilers might be done, they signed NHL trade deadline day acquisition Adam Henrique to a $3 million-per-year, two-year contract.
The Oilers were able to solve their requirements with those agreements, but they also went over the cap by an additional $2.54 million. The Oilers will therefore have to lower that number in order to make room for Dylan Holloway and Philip Broberg, two restricted free agents who want new contracts and may require the team to transfer salary space.
With the addition of Skinner, Edmonton has acquired a player who played for the Carolina Hurricanes for six seasons with 20 goals or more, three of which had 30-plus seasons.
In the first year of his contract, Skinner scored a career-high 40 goals, and the Sabres were essentially counting on him to be a reliable goal scorer.
However, Skinner’s following few seasons would be difficult, as he only managed to score 21 goals and 37 points in 112 games between the 2020–21 and 2019–20 seasons.
Skinner only had 24 goals and 46 points this past season, although coming back to score 30 goals and 63 points in the 2021–22 season and another 35 goals and a career-high 82 points in 79 games during the 2022–23 season.
His 46 points were the second fewest in a season in which he played more than 64 games, and it was his third-fewest goals in his career when playing more than 64 games.
In the end, it turned out to be a productivity level that the Oilers could afford as they aim to win their first Stanley Cup since 1990, but was too expensive for the Sabres.
Leave a Reply