How The Jeff Skinner Trade Impacts The Toronto Maple Leafs

If the Toronto Maple Leafs are interested in landing Artemi Panarin in a trade, the Jeff Skinner trade may help set Panarin’s price tag.

Last night, the Carolina Hurricanes traded Skinner to the Buffalo Sabres. In exchange, the Sabres parted with Cliff Pu, a 2019 second round pick, a 2020 third round pick and a 2020 sixth round pick.  It’s too bad the Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t land Skinner.

All-in-all, it was a great deal for the Sabres. Jason Botterill, the general manager for the Sabres landed a all-star winger to play on the top line alongside Jack Eichel.

While Skinner did have a rough season in 2017-18, he could be due for his best year in the NHL. In his eight year career, he’s never surpassed 65 points. With Eichel on his side, that all could change. Eichel is one of top centremen in the NHL and has shown in his short career that he can light up the lamp consistently.

Unfortunately for the Sabres, they lost Pu in the trade. Pu, a native of North York, Ontario, was selected by the Sabres in the third round of the 2016 draft.

This past season, Pu played in 65 games for both the London Knights and the Kingston Frontenacs in the Ontario Hockey League. Even though he was dealt to Kingston in the middle of the season, the trade didn’t slow him down. In total, he was able to post 29 goals and 55 assists.

Based on his performance in the OHL, Pu could be ready to play in the NHL next season. He’ll likely join the Carolina Hurricanes in the pre-season and will get an opportunity to impress Rod Brind’Amour, the new head coach in Carolina.

Impact On Toronto

In the past few weeks, the Toronto Maple Leafs have been rumoured to be talking to many teams across the NHL about a potential trade.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been linked to Panarin, Nino Niederriter, Jared Spurgeon, Colton Parayko, Erik Karlsson, Chris Tanev, Brandon Montour and others. It’s a long list and it’s probably going to get longer.

If the Toronto Maple Leafs are seriously looking to add another forward like Panarin, they’ll definitely have to pay more than what the Sabres paid for Skinner.  However, the Skinner trade will help set the market since both are pending UFAs.  If it costs a medium prospect, and three draft picks (no first rounders) for Skinner, you can bet the price to rent Panarin would be a better prospect, and at least a first and two seconds, possibly more.  Panarin is to Skinner as Matthews is to JVR.

If the Sabres had to trade one of their prospects, you’d have to believe that the Toronto Maple Leafs would have to do the same. In all likelihood, the Maple Leafs would have to part with either Timothy Liljegren or Rasmus Sandin. Plus, the Maple Leafs would have to include some draft picks too.

If the Toronto Maple Leafs added Panarin, it’d be great. The Maple Leafs would be adding one of the best players in the NHL. The issue is that he’s in a contract year and it might be challenging to keep him in Toronto. He’s going to command top billing and that won’t be easy to pay for when you have to re-sign Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews in the same off-season.

It’ll be interesting to see what Dubas decides to do, but you can expect that he’d have to provide an offer much better than  what the Hurricanes received.

stats from NHL.com, hockey-reference.com and wikipedia.com