Jeff Skinner signed a one-year, $3 million contract with the San Jose Sharks on Friday.
The 33-year-old forward had 29 points (16 goals, 13 assists) in 72 regular-season games for the Edmonton Oilers last season and two points (one goal, one assist) in five Stanley Cup Playoff games.
“The scouts said he still has the quickness in his game and the smarts and the competitiveness and knows where to go to score and is still hungry to score,” Sharks general manager Mike Grier said. “It’s not always easy to jump into a team that just went on a long run and went to the Stanley Cup Final to find your kind of niche there. Sometimes you’re in a situation where guys are used to playing with certain players and they like playing with certain players, so it’s sometimes hard to find your niche and there’s not a lot of power-play time there that goes around either. But they still saw a lot of things that they liked throughout the season, and even in the playoff games he played, the hunger and the knowhow and the smarts was all there, so we’re excited to have him.”
Selected by the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round (No. 7) of the 2010 NHL Draft, Skinner has 699 points (373 goals, 326 assists) in 1,078 regular-season games for the Hurricanes, Buffalo Sabres and Oilers. He played in the postseason for the first time in 2024-25 after 15 NHL seasons.
“Adding someone like Jeff who can play in our top six, who has been a proven goal scorer throughout his whole career — even this year with no power-play time and not a ton of ice time he still has 16 goals – his track record is pretty proven and we needed someone to kind of play up in the top six who can help us score,” Grier said. “And, hopefully, he can kind of have the same type of effect that [Tyler Toffoli] had because I think Jeff is, by all accounts, a really good pro, good human being and has lots of character. So, hopefully, some of that will rub off on our young guys as well.”
Skinner won the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year in 2010-11 when he had 63 points (31 goals, 32 assists) in 82 games with the Hurricanes.
