Coming this season: Jeff Skinner

Jeff Skinner scored 40 goals during his first year with the Sabres, then saw that total drop to 14 in 59 games in 2019-20.
What was at the root of that decrease? There was an upper-body injury that forced him to miss 10 games beginning in late December, which coincided with a 22-game goal-scoring drought. There was also a change in the lineup from the year prior, with Skinner skating with a variety of centermen as opposed to a fixed spot alongside Jack Eichel.
"I think it's a combination of a lot of things," Skinner said in May. "It's almost like a recipe and you're sort of constantly tweaking ingredients. I think that a lot of things go into it for me and you take back what you can from the season and you work on individual skills. I think there's a lot of things I'd like to work on this summer, sort of on-ice, situational things. I'm excited to get to work on those."
Here's a look at the Sabres forward entering 2020-21.

Number to know: 149

Skinner's scoring may have dropped, but it wasn't for a lack of chances. Despite missing 10 games, his 149 individual scoring chances at 5-on-5 led the Sabres and ranked 21st in the league (according to NaturalStatTrick.com).
The players immediately behind him on that list were Artemi Panarin, Mathew Barzal, Nikita Kucherov, and Brayden Point.
By comparison, Skinner was credited with 201 scoring chances at 5-on-5 in 82 games in 2019-20. By that definition, he had more chances per game last season (2.52) than during his 40-goal campaign (2.45).

Quotable:

Sabres coach Ralph Krueger on his offseason conversations with Skinner: "First and foremost, it was the dialogue that needed to be opened and everything on the table. I had a couple excellent chats with Jeff. … I thought a lot of the chats this summer were excellent. I really enjoyed mine with Jeff. I thought both of us worked hard in those conversations to work together toward solutions.
"When a player doesn't have a good season I have to be the first one to look in the mirror and say, 'What can I do different as a coach?' What's exciting is I think Jeff and I were doing that together and it's his comfort with the way we want to play and the commitment we need from every player without the puck, that went up as the season went on. We thought he came back strongly from his injury and we looked at a lot of the video from our final 10, 12 games in the last few months, and you could see a lot of good habits coming into Jeff's game. His offense will grow out of that as he feels comfortable with what we demand from everybody without the puck."

Eric Staal on why he believes Skinner will bounce back:"I just think his natural ability to score goals. Like a lot of offensive guys, it's a lot about confidence and feeling good about your game and then getting opportunities to have success. I think within our group and this team, the amount of offensive guys we have, you should get plenty of opportunity and chances to score. When he gets his confidence going, you just know that he's going to score. It's just like one of those things, a goal scorer, you can just feel when he gets that chance, it's going to hit the back of the net. I think when his confidence is going and he's getting opportunities and being tenacious around the puck, he's just a natural talent to puck the puck in the net. I think he'll be a big part, obviously, going forward. I'm just excited to see what he can do this year."

Watch this:

Everyone is happy to have hockey back, but few show it quite like Skinner. From Day One of camp, the forward has made a habit of celebrating goals alongside linemates Staal and Sam Reinhart.