Edmonton Oilers sign Jeff Skinner to one-year, $3 million contract

The Edmonton Oilers added another top-six winger into the mix late Saturday afternoon, as Frank Seravalli reported that the team has signed Jeff Skinner to a one-year, $3 million contract.

Who had the Oilers picking up a pair of top-six wingers on their bingo card for the first day of free agency? Nobody? Yeah, me neither. But that’s precisely what happened, as the Oilers are reportedly signing the freshly bought-out Jeff Skinner to a one-year contract that will pay him $3 million. Skinner is coming off a 24-goal campaign with the Buffalo Sabres, but he was no longer part of the solution with the team missing the playoffs for a 13th straight year. The 32-year-old sniper had three years remaining on his deal that carried a $9 million cap hit.

After initially signing an eight-year $72-million contract with then GM Jason Botterill, Skinner spent the past six seasons in Buffalo and has scored a combined 153 goals, including a 40-goal season in his first year with the team. In the past three seasons, Jeff Skinner has scored 1.25 goals per hour at even strength, which ranks 10th among all NHL players. This number would rank first on the Oilers, a team that features Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Zach Hyman. The shifty winger averaged 15:59 of ice time during the 2023-24 campaign, which included an average of 2:35 a night on the power play.

A gifted scorer throughout NHL career, Skinner has had one of the strangest journeys you can possibly imagine. Despite playing over 1000 games at the NHL level, he has yet to play a single playoff game. Of course, Skinner started his career with the Carolina Hurricanes before they got any good before eventually signing with the Buffalo Sabres at a time when they thought they were actually going to push to be a playoff contender. The result, unfortunately, has been a 14-year run without even a sniff of postseason hockey. One would expect that Skinner signed a one-year contract with the Oilers in the hopes of changing that.

In 74 games played with the Buffalo Sabres in 2023-24, Skinner registered 24 goals and 22 assists for 46 points to go along with 34 PIMs and a -2 rating while averaging 15:59 minutes in TOI.