Even as the Edmonton Oilers have recovered from a second consecutive slow start to a season, more is still needed of the team. This includes increased depth scoring from the forwards, with a particular focus on the likes of Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jeff Skinner.
Of the trio, Hyman has done the best job of stepping up, after beginning this season with just three goals in his first 20 games. Since returning from injury he's been on a tear with nine goals in eight appearances, looking more like the player who scored a career-high 54 goals last season.
Nugent-Hopkins still needs to offer more, but gets the benefit of the doubt given all that he has achieved during 14 years in the NHL with the Oilers, including producing a career-best 37 goals just two seasons ago. Skinner on the other hand, gets no such leeway.
A prolific goal-scorer
The 32-year-old was signed during the offseason to a one-year, $3 million deal, and was expected to provide an invaluable goal-scoring boost to an already prolific and dangerous attack. The guy had averaged 25.5 goals during his 14 previous seasons in the NHL, including 24 just last season.
Instead, Skinner has been nothing short of a disappointment, after an encouraging enough start with two goals and four overall point in his first five games for the Oilers. Since then, he's only managed four further goals in 28 appearances, in addition to a team-worst -10 rating.
The result has been plenty of frustration and questions about what is wrong with the 2010 seventh overall draft pick? Why is a player who was previously so productive throughout his career, been unable to succeed in Edmonton with some of the top talent in the league? (For goodness sake, he averaged 64 points over the past three seasons with the Buffalo Sabres!)
Just not fitting in with the team philosophy
The suggestion is that Skinner's style of play just doesn't mesh with the Oilers, which is saying something. Even more damning, the effort and hustle isn't always there and as a result he's been demoted, both in practice and during games.
This has been most evident in the past three games, as the Markham, Ontario native's ice time has declined from 11:21, to 8:06, to a season-low 7:53 on Saturday night versus the San Jose Sharks. For the season as a whole he's on course for a career-low average ice time of 13:08; for context, his current career-low is 14:31 during the 2020-21 campaign with the Sabres.
As we wrote on Thursday, there has been some talk of late that the Oilers could look to trade Skinner ahead of the Mar. 7 deadline. Not that it would necessarily be straightforward though, due to the combination of his diminished stock and holding a no-move clause in his contract.
We do believe the Oilers won't give up on Skinner just yet - this is still the same player who scored 35 goals and produced a career-high 82 points just two seasons ago. However, at some point the front office may need to approach him about waiving his no-move clause, to facilitate a trade and end an experiment which is edging closer towards the point of no return.