After rumors he'd be moved and sitting on the trade block for a while, the Carolina Hurricanes have finally traded forward Jeff Skinner to the Buffalo Sabres in exchange for picks and a prospect.
The trade includes Skinner going to Buffalo and prospect Cliff Pu as well as the Sabres second-round pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft and their third and sixth-round picks in the 2020 Draft coming back to Carolina.
While Buffalo wasn't rumored as a destination for Skinner, the trade that sends the soon-to-be unrestricted free agent out of Carolina was a long time coming. The Hurricanes were a team rumored to be making moves and they proved to be one of the busier organizations this summer landing Dougie Hamilton in trade and Calvin de Haan in free agency, all while moving out names like Noah Hanafin, Elias Lindholm and Skinner, with potentially Justin Faulk to follow.
Skinner was one of the team's best offensive weapons. At only 26 years old, he was drafted seventh overall in 2010, debuted the following season and scored 31 goals and 63 points in 82 games as a rookie. He would go on to win a Calder Memorial Trophy as the Rookie of the Year and score over 20 goals six times in eight seasons, eclipsing the 30-goal mark three times during that time.
The Hurricanes will surely miss his offense but there was a sense he'd be moving on in free agency next summer and would command top dollar on the open market.
What the Hurricanes are getting back for a proven scorer doesn't feel like all that much. Cliff Pu has yet to play a game in the NHL (or AHL) but has been effective as a winger at the OHL level. In 2017-18, Pu scored 29 goals and 85 points in 65 games split between the Knights and Frontenacs last season as well as four goals and 17 points in 15 postseason games.
For Carolina fans, this is heart-stopping kind of trade. Maybe Pu and those draft picks turn into something. Maybe they don't. But with this trade, the Hurricanes lost a great deal of their offense and with the number of teams rumored to be interested in acquiring Skinner, it seems like Carolina is leaving a lot to chance here.