Yes, Jeff Skinner has been arguably the weakest link in the chain of the Edmonton Oilers......until now. Skinner has worked his way back from the doldrums of being a very expensive fourth line player - and that's when he was even in the lineup to begin with, as he spent large stretches of the previous calendar year as a healthy scratch. The fact that Vasily Podkolzin used the opportunity to redeem himself in the eyes of his previous stop in the city of Vancouver and earn a valuable spot riding shotgun next to Leon Draisaitl certainly didn't help Skinner's case in the top six as a replacement was already available in-house.
However, since Skinner scored against his old team - the Sabres - on January 25, Skinner has been on a bit of a tear for the first time this season, putting up 2-2-4 in the five games before the 4 Nations Cup break. He's also earned a spot on the second unit PP, which is fantastic because for a finesse scorer who's fully capable of putting up 30-40 goals a season on the regular, he was languishing by necessity and the timing couldn't have been better for either Skinner himself or the Oilers seeing as how the Oilers were struggling on both special teams to start the season, at one point near the bottom of the league on both categories, now the Oilers PP is sixth in the league at 25% even.
It's not the record setting league leader from last season, but personally, I'll take it as it's a huge improvement from October. For the record, the PK is at 23rd in the league, a less impressive improvement but an improvement from October, nonetheless. Putting Skinner on the PP only makes it that much more lethal - and it was pretty good personnel wise even before Skinner was put on it, as it combined all of the Oilers' top offensive weapons between the two units. Take a look at those two PP units and tell me there isn't a head coach in the league who wouldn't kill to be in Kris Knoblauch's position of that much firepower doing its thing on special teams.
What's behind the renaissance?
Whether this was a conversation Skinner initiated with Knoblauch or whether Knoblauch initiated it with Skinner we'll never know, but whoever initiated it first, it worked. Skinner's renewed offensive performance is due to a renewed commitment to playing defense first. Skinner lost way too many battles at the beginning of the season. Now for the first 10 games or so we could forgive that to an extent as he's getting used to a new city, new systems, new teammates, new coaching staff, etc., however, he's long since past that type of slack in the rope. Skinner was relegated to the fourth line or the press box in large part because he needed to prove to the coaching staff that he could handle softer competition before getting more valuable minutes.
Over the last few weeks we've noticed Skinner has cut down on those types of mistakes, evident by the fact that at the beginning of the season, he was sporting a -10 in +/-, while now that's been cut in half to -5, and I would be willing to bet will be on the good side of the ledger just in time for the playoffs to start. Of course, the team itself has improved defensively from the beginning of the season as well so this is still the second worst mark on the team, his numbers have moved in lockstep with everyone else, but still, it's good progress nonetheless - only Kasperi Kapanen and his -11 have been worse, which explains why Kapanen is playing on the fourth line or was before the break.
Accordingly, Skinner's ice time has followed a predictable pattern, as his ice time started relatively high with high expectations but then dipped to sub-10 minutes or so per game, then below the 10 minute mark around December, and by the time the calendar turned over he wasn't playing at all many nights. Since his turnaround and addition to the PP, his ice time has gone back up, to the point where during the second last game before the break against Chicago, Skinner played 15:27. That was the first time he'd cracked the 15 minute mark since Dec. 3. If you break that down a little more, Skinner now spends about 1:00 on the PP per game on average (seventh on the team), and 11:30 per game at evens, and 12:24 overall. If he can maintain a spot next to Draisaitl and on the PP, I suspect that his ice time might be closer to 20 minutes a game by the end of the season. Skinner is used to being the main offensive weapon on his team in the past, and on paper at least he provides a lethal 1-2 punch regardless of whether he plays next to McDavid or Draisaitl.
How physical is Skinner?
Well since he's a finesse forward, it probably won't surprise you to know that he's not a very physical player. It's worth noting, however, that he is actually 10th on the team in hits right now with 23 and is only a single hit away from surpassing Derek Ryan's 24 to move up to ninth on the team. He's not much of a shot blocker but he does have 18 on the season, good enough for 15th on the Edmonton Oilers.