Sabres GM Jason Botterill keeps on working his magic as he acquired forward Jeff Skinner from the Carolina Hurricanes for prospect Cliff Pu, a second round draft pick in 2019, a third round pick in 2020, and a sixth round pick in 2020.
Skinner is coming off of a 24 goal and 25 assist season, his third consecutive 20 goal season. Throughout his eight year career, Skinner has scored a total of 204 goals and collected 175 assists. He has three 30 goal seasons, with his best season coming in 2016-17 where he scored 37 times.
Skinner is entering the final year of his contract, and according to Cap Friendly he waived his No Movement Clause to come to Buffalo.
With this trade, the Sabres have added two top six forwards without having to give up any of their three first round picks for the 2019 draft. Nothing is certain until they hit the ice, but it looks like Botterill has sped up the rebuilding process with the playoffs in sight for the first time in years for the Sabres.