SAN JOSE — Jeff Skinner had been known to San Jose Sharks fans as the player who edged out Logan Couture for the Calder Trophy as the NHL Rookie of the Year after the 2010-11 season.

Now he might become the Sharks’ second-line left winger.

The Sharks continued their busy offseason Friday by signing Skinner to a one-year, $3 million contract.

Skinner, 33, had 29 points (16 goals, 13 assists) in 72 games with the Edmonton Oilers this past season as he made the Stanley Cup playoffs for the first time in his career. Skinner became a free agent on July 1, just weeks after the Oilers lost the Cup final to the Florida Panthers in six games.

Sharks general manager Mike Grier said last week that he was interested in acquiring a top-nine forward to add to his already revamped group. He might have found one in Skinner, a 15-year NHL veteran who has 699 points in 1,078 career NHL games, with stops in Carolina and Buffalo before he joined the Oilers.

“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,” 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 that goes around either.

“But (the Sharks’ scouts) 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.”

Since July 1, the Sharks have added forwards Skinner, Adam Gaudette, Philipp Kurashev, and Ryan Reaves, defensemen Dmitry Orlov, John Klingberg, and Nick Leddy, and goalie Alex Nedeljkovic. Reaves was acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night for defenseman Henry Thrun.

Just in the last two weeks, the Sharks have gone from the third-youngest team in the NHL to the 20th-youngest, with the average age of 28.68 years.

“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.”

Originally Published: July 11, 2025 at 12:29 PM PDT