Skinner is a good goal scorer. Always has been in this league. He signs in Buffalo for that terrible deal, except he goes and puts up 40 goals right away, under Housley.
Then Buffalo decides to hire Kruger. Skinner struggles, and gets demoted to the 4th line. Gets 14 goals that year. Next season, still under Kruger, things get worse, and he puts up 7 goals.
Kruger gets canned, in comes Granato promoted from the assistant spot, and Skinner tallies 33 goals. Then he puts up 35 goals for Granato. Then a relatively disappointing 24 goals last season.
Unless Skinner suffers an injury, or Knoblauch takes a dislike to him (both of which could definitely happen), I would probably think that Skinner puts up 30 goals this year. I would be surprised if he doesn't, actually, as long as he gets opportunity. He is likely to play on one of the top 2 lines, and I am sure he had those discussions prior to signing with the Oilers. Time will tell if he stays there or not, but that's the expected spot for him.
As for his PP time - I think he won't get as much PP time obviously. McDavid-Draisaitl-Hyman-RNH-Bouchard. No secret they stay out there for basically the entire PP, so unless one of these guys are hurt, or had a very long shift, or are in the penalty box themselves, Skinner is likely to get scraps. However, he is 47th in the NHL in the last 3 seasons for even strength point production, and 26th in goals. That might surprise some people, right?
Skinner produces, period, unless he plays for Kruger.
I also think he refused to waive last year so that he could force a buyout, and then turn around and bet on himself. I think those two years under Kruger just completely eroded his name in the NHL. I was actually hoping that the Flames would trade for him with retention from Buffalo with a sweetener attached, let him play a year and rebuild his reputation, and then trade him with some retention for something really good.
I do think he took a bit less to sign in Edmonton. He has a very good track record of doing the one thing that players get paid the most to do - score goals. There is no guarantee that things work out for him, but I bet he signs another contract after this - maybe a 3 or 4 year deal - for more money than he has signed with the Oilers for. As long as he doesn't get injured, or fall into Knoblauch's doghouse (both of which may happen), i expect Skinner to do what he does best - produce.
However, this does not mean that I think the Oilers got better. Their PK is obviously going to suffer this year. Their defence is going to suffer. Their character and leadership in the room is going to suffer. I think Skinner is decent, but will he take another step forward in his career, or will he regress behind a worse defence and PK?
Oilers are now once again a team that thinks that they can out-score their problems. They will win and lose 5-4 games again rather than win and lose 2-1 and 3-1 games. I don't think they took a step in the right direction this off-season. They need at least one more experienced defensive defencemen. They need one very good defensive centre (preferably 2-way centre). They got slower, they got less tough, they got less defensively sound, and they got older.
TLDR; Skinner will produce, the Oilers got better at scoring goals, but overall the Oilers got worse in almost every other metric.
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