Carolina Hurricanes: The Outcome of the Jeff Skinner Trade

Carolina’s Haul

The Canes have done a swell job amassing draft capital over the last few years, which has obviously been a byproduct of their long-time rebuild. In the Skinner deal, they continued that trend, though a lot of fans were kind of let down by the return for a premiere goal scorer like Skinner.

Although you would expect more than a 2nd, 3rd and 6th round pick (we won’t include Cliff Pu as a piece, as he’s been shipped off to Florida) for a guy who could put home 30+ goals a season, Skinner’s value as a tradeable asset had diminished with the Canes. They were not dealing from a position of strength, and it was well known around the league.

Obviously, the news came out after the trade that the relationship between Skinner and the new Canes regime, led by Don Waddell, never manifested and they’d reportedly agreed on Skinner’s impending exit during the season-ending exit interviews after the Canes’ season wrapped up in April 2018.

"“[we made the move because] with Jeff becoming an unrestricted free agent next summer, this was the right time for us to move on, and to provide Jeff with a fresh start in Buffalo.” – Don Waddell"

So, naturally, with the fractured relationship between the team and Skinner, his impending UFA status and both parties’ desire to part ways, the likelihood of a sizeable haul was always limited, despite Waddell mentioning that the Canes had spoken to every NHL team about Skinner.

So far, their return for their once Calder Trophy winner has yielded mixed results. The only active player that Carolina received in the deal was forward prospect Cliff Pu, who was (PUN WARNING) kind of… crappy. Pu, who was a former 3rd round draft choice by the Sabres, lasted just 44 games with Carolina’s affiliate in Charlotte, where he managed to score just 1 goal and was traded for a minor-leaguer who is no longer with the Canes organization.

Aside from Pu, 2 of the 3 draft picks acquired (the 3rd and 6th rounders) are set for the 2020 draft, so the Carolina Hurricanes have two assets that they can use to either add two more young prospects to the organization, or use the draft capital in a trade, should a worthwhile situation present itself to the club.

The one pick they have used already however, was the 2019 second round draft choice in which they opted to select Russian goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov at 36th overall. Kochetkov seems like a good bet to have NHL success, and is heralded by some as the future of Carolina Hurricanes’ goaltending. I wrote an outlook piece on Kochetkov back in the summer which you can read here.