Jeff Skinner looking for big bucks from the Buffalo Sabres
Jeremy White: A source is saying that Buffalo Sabres pending unrestricted free agent forward Jeff Skinner is looking for an eight-year deal at between $9 and $9.5 million per season to prevent him from hitting the open market in July.
Jeremy White: thinks that if the Sabres were to re-sign Skinner it would be closer to $8.5 to $9 million. The Sabres are eligible to sign him to eight-years after the trade deadline.
Jeremy White: It’s possible that Skinner’s play regresses a bit and they could end up settling at under $8.5 million per.
Oilers on pins and needles
Chris Nichols of Nichols on Hockey: Elliotte Friedman was on Sportsnet 960 and was asked about Edmonton Oilers head coach Todd McLellan and his job security.
“I don’t think it’s just coach watch, I think everybody in that organization is on pins and needles right now,” said Friedman. “And I’ve said this before. Right from the start of this year, it was on edge in Edmonton. I just think that it has gone away at certain times. They lost their first two games – it was crazy intense for two games into the season. They kind of righted the ship. They’ve been very streaky, and every time they go on one of the bad streaks, people tell me the intensity of the heat just ramps up again.”
Could Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli be on the hot seat as well?
“Like I said, I think it’s just about everybody in the hockey ops department,” noted Friedman. “I think the only guy who’s probably 100 percent safe, if that, would probably be Gretzky. But other than that, I think everybody there is looking at it like, ‘This organization has made a lot of off-ice change. It’s not working yet on the ice.’”