BUFFALO, N.Y. — Don Granato recently called Jeff Skinner a quiet ringleader. It’s an apt description of the Buffalo Sabres’ 30-year-old winger. Players in the room gravitate to the shifty goal-scorer because of his infectious smile and personality. He’s not the loudest guy in the room or the most vocal leader, but his presence is an important one. This is the guy who chose Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” as his goal song because he thought it would make everyone feel good when they heard it. He’s never afraid to show teammates he cares about them. In a room where Skinner is now one of the elder players, that’s had a real impact.
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“He is a very special guy to our team,” Granato said.
Imagine hearing that statement from the previous coach of the Sabres, the one who often buried Skinner on the bottom six, made him a healthy scratch and routinely cited “principles” and “accountability” as his reasons. Like others in the locker room, Skinner has flourished under Granato’s leadership. In the process, he’s started to change the narrative around his contract, which pays him $9 million annually through the 2026-27 season.
In fact, under Granato, the Sabres have found a way to rewrite the stories of a few trades. Tage Thompson’s emergence as a superstar has helped ease the sting of watching Ryan O’Reilly win the Stanley Cup in St. Louis. Trading Jack Eichel, which was once thought of as unthinkable, became a catalyst for the team’s current resurgence.
Add the Skinner trade and contract to that list. When Granato took over toward the end of the 2020-21 season, Skinner was on his way to career lows with seven goals and seven assists. The Sabres were staring down six more seasons of paying Skinner more than a million bucks a goal while missing the playoffs for a 10th straight season.
Meanwhile, the Hurricanes, who never made the playoffs once with Skinner on the roster have made the postseason every year since trading him. Carolina’s return in the Skinner trade was Cliff Pu, who never played a game, a second-round pick, a third-round pick and a sixth-round pick. The Hurricanes flipped that sixth-round pick and a goalie prospect for James Reimer, who helped them to the playoffs twice. They also drafted goalie Pyotr Kochetkov with that second-round pick, and he looks like a potential long-term, No. 1 goalie. Carolina used that third-round pick on Alexander Nikishin, who is signed in the KHL until 2025 but is currently leading defensemen in that league in points per game. The Hurricanes also gave themselves cap flexibility by not signing Skinner to that hefty contract.
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That’s why grading trades in the moment can be tricky. The Skinner trade looked like a win for the Sabres when he scored 40 goals in his first season in Buffalo. Then it looked like a loss when that contract was weighing down their cap and the Hurricanes were finding plenty of team success without him.
When Granato took over, he noticed Skinner still had a love for the game. As frustrating as things were for Skinner under Ralph Krueger, that love hadn’t disappeared.
“It was easy for me to see that this is a guy that has an appetite to get his game to a very high level,” Granato said. “Feeling that, when you’re in a position to help and support that initiative, it was fairly easy for me knowing he had that in him.”
There was also a team-building motivation to get the most out of Skinner because his contract wasn’t going anywhere. Now as the Sabres have started to build their team through drafting and developing their own players, Skinner is earning his contract. He’s on pace for a career-high in points and has found his voice as a leader.
“When I came in, he was known as a 40-goal scorer and now he’s so much more than that to me,” Granato said. “I’m comfortable using him in defensive situations, in overtime situations, in playmaking situations, in leadership situations, even handing off a responsibility, saying ‘Hey, would you take this responsibility and talk to your line about this or a young guy about this?’”
The way Granato talks about Skinner now is quite the contrast to how the Hurricanes spoke about when he left. Rod Brind’Amour had been an assistant with the Hurricanes before taking over as head coach. When he took over, the Skinner trade quickly followed. Back then, he wasn’t shy about his thoughts.
“I think it sends a message of what kind of Hurricane we’re looking for, what kind of player we want,” Brind’Amour had said. “Everybody’s available. You’ve got to produce, you’ve got to do the things we’re asking you to do, otherwise you’re not safe. So it was the right move. I think the guys understand you’ve got to come ready to play and do what we’re asking. Otherwise you’re not a Hurricane. We can’t have you.”
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At the time, general manager Don Waddell said the team wanted to make some changes, “culturally.” Waddell did not respond to an interview request for this story, but Brind’Amour and the Hurricanes were in town for Skinner’s 900th game on Feb. 1. An hour before the game and almost five years after the trade, Brind’Amour’s tune hadn’t changed much.
“Listen, he’s putting it together now finally here,” Brind’Amour said. “He could always score goals. He’s doing that here. He’s a very elusive player. Now they’re playing him with two real good guys and that helps. Sometimes it’s hard to find a fit for a guy like that because he’s hanging out in the not real dirty areas. You have to have special guys that know where he is and can get him the puck. That’s what it seems like they’ve done now.”
He added, “It’s not surprising. The surprising part was that he had those years where he didn’t do too much. He can score goals.”
The morning of his 900th game, Skinner sat at his locker and reflected on the trade. If he has any hard feelings about how things ended, Skinner has kept those to himself. When the trade happened, Skinner was glad to be going close to home in Markham, Ontario. Since he’s gotten to Buffalo, he feels even luckier that his situation played out the way it did.
“Until you’re in Buffalo and experience it for yourself, it’s harder to sort of grasp how deeply intertwined the community and their sports teams are,” Skinner said. “That’s something I’m grateful for and happy I get to experience. For it to have worked out the way it did for me I’m really happy and grateful that it did.”
So are the Sabres. Walk in their locker room on any given day, and Skinner has a teammate laughing. Granato said Skinner carries a youthful energy into the rink and it’s what has allowed him to thrive at his age on a young roster. Players gravitate to him, and captain Kyle Okposo loves having his perspective in the leadership group. Because of what he’s been through and the way he’s able to articulate his experiences, Skinner is someone players lean on.
“I give him all the credit in the world,” Okposo said. “When you score 40 and sign that deal, there’s a lot of pressure that comes with it. And then when everything happened and he’s getting healthy scratched and he’s on the fourth line and not playing a lot, but he never changed his work ethic. We have the same trainer in the summer. I see how he works and how dedicated he is to his body and his craft. He did a lot of different things. It’s not an accident that he is where he is again. It’s just been awesome to see the rebirth of his game, but he never stopped working and never stopped wanting to be a great player. It shows in how he prepares.”
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The Hurricanes aren’t likely second-guessing anything about the deal. It’s worked out fine on their end. But Skinner has found a way to make it a worthwhile deal for Buffalo, too. His fit with Tage Thompson and Alex Tuch (as Brind’Amour pointed out) is a strong one. He’s more of a playmaker now than he ever was in Carolina, and Skinner can be a pest for opponents, too. Skinner has still never played in the playoffs, but he and the Sabres are in the mix for a wild-card spot for the first time in a while.
“I think individuals tend to have success when the team does,” Skinner noted. “When the team is clicking and for me personally, when the line is clicking like it is, that’s when you see guys start to have success individually.”
Skinner has found a way to be part of the solution in Buffalo. He still has great relationships with a lot of Hurricanes staff members and the few players who are left over, too. He said at the time of the trade that “sometimes a fresh start is needed for both sides.” As he looks back almost five years later, it’s easy to see how that has worked out on both ends.
“For sure,” he said with a smile. “I agree.”
(Photo: Timothy T. Ludwig / USA TODAY Sports)
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