Move over, Waldo. It’s time to play ‘Where’s Jeff Skinner’ once again.
On Monday, he could be found making a surprise appearance in the Edmonton Oilers lineup, as opposed to behind the curtain in what’s become his usual spot as a healthy scratch for the previous three games in a row.
It’s only gotten harder and harder to spot Skinner in the crowd, since the Oilers brought in a trio of big bodies to the dressing room at the trade deadline in an effort to get bigger, stronger and maybe even faster.
And while Skinner will never be accused of being big and strong, he was fast to disappoint an Oilers club that signed the free agent to a one-year, $3-million deal in the off-season. Not even half the season passed before he was scratched from the lineup after the first 35 games, where he went scoreless in all but 11 of them, earning 10 points (six goals, four assists) in that span.
And with 21 points (11 goals, 10 assists) in the first 53 games, Skinner would be on pace for 27 points this season, if he were to remain in the lineup — which is on par with his worst years in Buffalo not seeing eye to eye with head coach Ralph Krueger.
In Edmonton, Skinner first sat on Dec. 29, came back and played five games with a goal and two assists, sat three more games, came in for one and went back out the next, played three with one goal, back out, put together a productive string of seven games with three goals and two assists, only to be taken back out for four of the next six before reappearing in the lineup for Monday’s game.
Scratched 10 times in a stretch of 28 games. And when he did get reinserted into the lineup, it was all over the board, from the fourth line all the way up to playing on the left wing of league-leading goal scorer Leon Draisaitl.
It’s enough to make your head spin.
The Oilers obviously don’t want him and obviously don’t know what to do with him, discovering that bringing in a pure goal-scorer to their already high-octane offence and then asking him to all of a sudden round out the rest of his game to become more of a role-player to the big stars in the top six might not have been the soundest of strategies.
And he’s not gritty enough to be much of an effective option in the bottom six. Never will be.
So, when they couldn’t trade him at the deadline (to anyone who couldn’t simply wait until he’s back on the market in four months), well, the only option is to sit him. After all, they purposefully went out and got forwards Max Jones and Trent Frederic, who will need a place to play.
“It hasn’t gone as well as we anticipated just with finding a fit, who he was playing with,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. “Jeff’s been really good and working hard and doing everything we’ve asked from him.
“But anytime you can add somebody with veteran leadership, somebody who’s got over 1,000 games, scored as many goals as he has, you can never have enough good players. And obviously he’s a good player.”
Just not on this particular team.
The unfortunate part of all of this is 2024-25 was supposed to be the year Skinner finally got the playoff monkey off his back, having failed to reach the post-season in any of his previous 14 years in the league with the Carolina Hurricanes or Buffalo Sabres. Signing with an Oilers squad fresh off a trip to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals all but assured the end of that drought.
Oh, it still will be the year for Skinner … he just won’t be a part of it. Not really. Not as far as getting in the lineup is concerned, anyway, (pending some injuries along the playoff path).
So, the least Knoblauch could do was throw the guy a bone and dress him in what he no doubt already had circled on the calendar as his triumphant return to KeyBank Center, where he toiled the past six seasons on a team that finished no higher than fifth in the Atlantic Division.
In Monday’s homecoming, Skinner found himself slotted on the third line with Mattias Janmark and Connor Brown, in place of Kasperi Kapanen.
“Now that we do have some extra guys, and we’ve felt throughout the year we have good, quality players, especially at forward, that there’s been some rotation and we don’t want to be switching up the lineup too much,” Knoblauch said. “But there will be tweaks until the end of the regular season, just because we’re going to need him in the playoffs or down the stretch, that we don’t want somebody sitting for a long period of time.
“Jeff’s a really good player and it’s just finding him a spot in our lineup. Tonight, was as good as any, obviously, coming back here to Buffalo, that he will be playing.”
E-mail: [email protected]
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge
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