Rumor: Buffalo Sabres Shopping Jeff Skinner

The Buffalo Sabres find themselves in the middle of one of the most important seasons in franchise history. New management has tried to bring in some talent to assemble around captain, Jack Eichel and so far its certainly been hit or miss with the results. The team is 4-4-2 so far this season and will need to pick up their socks if they want to compete for a playoff spot.

One Sabre in particular who needs to produce more....Jeff Skinner.

The infamous $9 million dollar man who holds a full no-movement clause has been terrible so far this season. His one point in 10 games is laughable production for someone making that kind of money. Even though he's only seeing 13:52 on average a night for ice-time, there's a ton of Sabres who have played in less games, seen the ice less, and are producing more. See Curtis Lazar and Dylan Cozens.

We asked one NHL executive what's next for Skinner and their response may or may not surprise you:

I think Buffalo's been making some phone calls to see what the interest levels are like. They'll continue to point out he scored 40 goals two years ago, but there's certainly a tremendous amount of risk involved with six more years on his contract. There's a $7.5 million signing bonus he's due in 2022. You can bet your bottom dollar the Sabres will try and move him before that kicks in.

Perhaps we see a bad contract for bad contract trade? At this point, doesn't get much worse than Skinner. Even worse is the fact he holds all the control. 

Photo credit: Jeanine Leech/Icon Sportswire