Edmonton Oilers: Is Stuart Skinner ready to be an NHL regular?

Winner winner Stuart Skinner. A lot of NHL players break into the league as injury replacements, and at this point Skinner appears to be another one of those guys added to the list with the Edmonton Oilers.

I’m not ready to proclaim him as a surefire NHLer just yet, but he’s certainly at least starting to make the case for it in my eyes. His timing couldn’t be better too as Koskinen started off well but has since crashed back down to earth and returned to his old inconsistent “let in weak goals at bad times” self.

The Oilers can outscore those mistakes at times, but it’s not a solution in the long term to depend on that. You need your goaltender to perform at peak efficiency in both the regular season and even moreso in the playoffs.

Koskinen’s contract is thankfully up after this season and I’m starting to think we’re seeing his replacement already on the roster and with a fraction of the cap hit to boot. You must be cautious on short sample size – Skinner’s NHL career is only six games old – but it’s so far so good for the local greenhorn. He sports a .939 sv% and stingy 2.08 GAA, both spectacular numbers for a veteran goaltender never mind a raw rookie.

Skinner’s timing couldn’t be better. With Koskinen’s contract up after this season and Smith on the shelf for longer than expected, Skinner was brought in as an injury fill-in and has not only survived but thrived.

He even out dueled Connor Hellebuyck against Winnipeg – and that guy is the reigning Vezina trophy winner!

If you’re a youngster like Skinner that’s got to give you confidence.

Goalies are voodoo to predict, so I don’t want to prematurely anoint him as Koskinen’s replacement now, but if he keeps up his current level of play until the end of the season, you have to think he’s got to be at least a top two option for the spot in the offseason.

Skinner didn’t make the team out of camp, but in his first couple of starts with the Bakersfield Condors he put up a .946 sv% and a 1.50 GAA. He picked up right where he left off in his breakout AHL season last year, and he’s now in his fourth season in the pros.

If he keeps going like he has, I highly doubt he has anything left to learn in the AHL. I’m not an expert in player development, but it’s looking more and more like Skinner is ready for the big time as the Oilers goalie of the future today.

They certainly miss him in Bakersfield, where the other two big prospects – Ilya Konovalov (first season in the North American pros) and Olivier Rodrigue (second season, only 17 games into his career) are both sporting sv%’s below .900 and GAAs above 3.00.

Hopefully Jay Woodcroft and his staff are working with them on that, but I digress.

Skinner was drafted in 2017 in the third round, so at this point it’s looking more and more like the Oilers hit on a third round pick, which is great asset management as the chances of a third round pick hitting aren’t great.

But it’s not just that part of things that are significant. Skinner is only the second Oilers pick from that draft to play in the NHL, Kailer Yamamoto was the first one (first round pick in that draft).

The rest are all playing for Bakersfield – except for Kirill Maksimov and Skyler Brind’amour, who is going the US College route.

He’s the first goalie drafted that’s made this kind of an impact in quite awhile as the Oilers have a track record of being terrible at drafting goalies. He’s also a local Edmonton boy, so it’s a feel good story of a guy who was born in Edmonton, drafted by the Oilers, and now playing for them.

The last local Edmonton goalie to play for the Oilers was Grant Fuhr (and that’s if you include the metropolitan area of the city). Until now.

Whether Skinner continues to succeed or falls on his face from here on in, personally I’m routing for him hard. He has filled a great vacuum of a roster spot when it was desperately needed, and here’s to hoping for more good things for the young man.