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McPasta8873

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Forum: Armchair-GMMay 30 at 2:17 a.m.
Thread: An Outsiders Vision - NSH
<div class="quote"><div class="quote_t">Quoting: <b>McPasta8873</b></div><div>Pretty sure Buffalo saves more buying him out so I don’t think they consider this deal.

And if they were to retain 50% they would definitely want a much better return</div></div>
Buying him out would certainly save more this year (7.4mil as opposed to 4.5mil), next year would see the cap hits equalise, but the point of the buyout is to open space in the years following. A Skinner buyout done this offseason or next would cost them 6.4mil in 2026-27 followed by either 2 or 3 years of a cap hit on 2.4mil all of which would be during the beginning of BUF's contention window and during a time in which most of their young talent will be in need of new contracts. As for whether BUF should expect a decent return at 50% retention, I'm not sure he'd get much more than a mid round pick. You could make the case that he's only one season removed from pt/gm production, but any team betting on acquiring him is going to see the potential burden of 4.5mil for 3 years for a 32 year old who just had 46 points.

In essence, they're saving ~2mil per year from '26 to '30 at the cost of not getting a minor asset in return. Of course, BUF's ownership may not be keen on paying all that to have a guy not play for them, but that's not something I can really account for. I just think it's time for BUF to move on from Skinner and open a spot for one of Kulich, Ostlund, Rosen, or Savoie to step in.