The Jeff Skinner experience has not been what the Edmonton Oilers envisioned when they signed him to a one-year deal over the summer.
The 32-year-old is coming off three straight 20-plus goal seasons with the Buffalo Sabres and the expectation was that he could help the team add a scoring punch into their top-six. While the team has recently found their stride, winning eight of their last 10 games heading into the break, Skinner has found himself deep in the doghouse.
Instead of being a top-six forward, Skinner now finds himself on the Oilers’ fourth line and is consistently among the bottom-feeders when it comes to ice time. During Sunday night’s 3-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators, he had a team-low 8:37 of ice time at even strength. He was the only forward not to have at least nine minutes at even strength with the likes of Derek Ryan and Corey Perry playing more.
It’s odd to see such a significant offensive player play so little on a nightly basis. Daily Hive asked Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch what Skinner has to do to earn more ice time and the answer was a bit confusing.
“Just play good hockey,” Knoblauch said. “I look at our team, who is he elevating? We got a lot of guys who are playing really well right now and he’ll have his opportunity.
“The season is long, there’s injuries, there are guys who go through injuries.”
“He’s been typically a guy that produces, that can play with top talent… With an illness to Nuge, he can certainly fill in for that role.”
Coach Knoblauch on elevating Viktor Arvidsson to the #Oilers top line. @Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/1KX1rnKUzc
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) December 23, 2024
On the surface that sounds like a completely reasonable answer. Both Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Vasily Podkolzin have earned their top-six spots ahead of Skinner this season and it is difficult for Knoblauch to change a winning lineup.
Yet, there have been plenty of injuries at the top of the lineup this season, and Skinner hasn’t even been considered when that happens. Against the Senators, Nugent-Hopkins was out sick, making this the perfect opportunity to finally give Skinner a shot in the top six in his spot beside McDavid and Zach Hyman.
Instead of doing that, Knoblauch decided to elevate Viktor Arvidsson, who is only in his third game back since a month-long injury and was playing on his off-wing on the McDavid line. It seemed like a weird position to put Arvidsson instead of simply just plugging Skinner there.
It was a gamble that worked as Arvidsson scored the game’s first goal off a sweet feed from McDavid, just an interesting choice by the coach. With all that said, Knoblauch added that he did like what he saw from Skinner on that fourth line with Perry and Ryan.
“Tonight I thought was a good game from him,” Knoblauch said. “Derek Ryan, Corey Perry, and Skinner played extremely well tonight, spent a lot of time in the offensive zone, they’re around the net a lot. That’s what I expect from him.”
This isn’t a push for Skinner to suddenly get all of the ice time that Nugent-Hopkins and Podkolzin are currently getting. There are certainly parts of his game that have struggled in Edmonton and some of that is on the player to improve.
Considering that he was among the premier additions to the team last summer, it’s concerning to see him be passed over so many times and to see his ice time plummet to be among the lowest on the team.
Perhaps a holiday reset will give him another chance to get out of Knoblauch’s doghouse in the new year.