Oilers GM Comments on Jeff Skinner's Status With Team

Jeff Skinner is a 10-time 20-goal scorer, a six-time 30-goal scorer, and even a 40-goal scorer. But after signing him to a one-year, $3 million deal last summer, the Edmonton Oilers haven't gotten a whole lot out of the 32-year-old veteran this season. He's even been a healthy scratch six times over the last few weeks.

Skinner could even be a potential cap casualty as noted by Daily Faceoff, if the Oilers need to move him to get off some money to make a deal at the trade deadline ("Every other player either has too much importance with the team or isn’t making enough to work well as a cap dump", writes Scott Maxwell).

But don't tell Oilers GM Stan Bowman any of that. He told Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic that asking Skinner to waive his no-move clause to get a trade done isn't something he's thinking about right now.

I don’t envision that being the case. He’s shown the real willingness to work through things with our group, and I commend him on that. He’s had a really great attitude the entire time. Haven’t had any complaints from him at all. He’s a professional and he’s got a lot of pride.
He wants to take a step forward and play a bigger role. We’ve seen signs of that very recently, not only scoring the last game, but also made some noticeable plays with determination and finding a way to be able to contribute. That’s a great sign.

A recent relatively hot five-game stretch has Skinner at 10 goals in 49 games. He is playing a career-low 12:29 per night.

This is all coming off three straight 20-goal seasons in Buffalo, before they bought out the final three years of his previous contract last summer.

Skinner does need to build off his recent three points in five-game stretch if he's to have a meaningful role (or any role) on this Oilers team as they gear up for the playoffs. And one final comment from Bowman on the matter still does leave the door open for a possible Skinner exit:

"I suppose things can always change, but that’s not the focus right now for Jeff."