Former Oiler Jeff Skinner placed on unconditional waivers by San Jose Sharks

Now 33 years old, Skinner has only played 32 games with the San Jose Sharks this season and has been a frequent healthy scratch. After a disappointing season with the Oilers last year, Skinner’s year with the Sharks has been even worse.

After scoring just 6 goals and 13 points this year with the Sharks, NHL insiders are confirming Skinner is on waivers for the purposes of contract termination. If he clears, he’ll become a free agent.

Skinner is only on a one-year contract with San Jose at an annual cap hit of $3M. At the time of signing, he was considered a low-risk bet for a rebuilding team to raise their offensive floor - but the experiment failed entirely.

Just like his time in Edmonton during the 2024-25 season, Skinner fell down the lineup until he was consistently made a healthy scratch by San Jose. Now a year older and less productive, the Sharks are looking to clear his salary to potentially add more players for a playoff push this season.

Skinner was once one of the NHL’s best pure snipers, and tallying six 30+ goal seasons in his career. However, his poor defence and declining speed are major drawbacks to his entire player profile which make the marginal offence not worth it anymore.

It was surprising at times that the Oilers benched Skinner while they were searching for more offence in the bottom-six, but now it’s clear that he may just be heading out of the NHL entirely. Behind the Sharks, there’d be very few teams willing to take a bet on an aging offence-only sniper.

It’s still possible Skinner finds a new NHL home as a free agent or gets claimed on waivers, but it’s looking increasingly more likely that his career in North America is coming to an end.

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