Did Stuart Skinner Seal His Fate With the Oilers After His Latest Comments?

Stuart Skinner probably didn’t intend to create controversy or throw himself under the bus this week, but his brutally honest comments about his play may have done exactly that. In trying to explain the pressure he’s under, he may have accidentally made the strongest argument yet for why the Edmonton Oilers can’t rely on him as their long-term starter.

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Speaking to media, Skinner said, “My job is to stop the puck, whether people like it or not. If I’m at the top of my game, we always have a chance to win; if I’m not, there’s a good chance we’re losing. That’s every goalie in the league.”

It’s not as though this is groundbreaking news. When a NHL goalie is good, a team has a good chance to win. When bad, they don’t. However, the Oilers have often come to bat for Skinner, despite his terrible numbers this season and in the past. For example, Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said following the loss in Washington, “We don’t give ‘Stu’ much help.” He added, “You look at these nights where Stu is giving up a lot of goals and you’re thinking it’s on the goaltending, but we’re not making the game easy for him.”

That’s fair too. However, Skinner’s comments seem to suggest that he’s supposed to play well enough that it doesn’t necessarily matter if his team hangs him out to dry.

No goalie can be perfect — Skinner certainly isn’t. But his numbers are a mix of him not having his A-game and the Oilers being pretty terrible defensively. And right now, if the blueliners don’t find a way to help him out, the Oilers need to find a goalie who can steal games, even when Edmonton doesn’t necessarily deserve to win.

Skinner doubled down on the idea, adding, “It really doesn’t matter what’s going on, it just matters if you’re able to make a save at the right time… wins are all that matters.”

So, if he’s not getting them, what next?

For a team with Stanley Cup expectations, a goalie who openly acknowledges that his up-and-down play has a direct impact on the team’s record, he’s essentially admitting that it might be time to move on if he doesn’t get his own game on the right track.

Skinner’s ceiling isn’t in question, but the roller-coaster stretches between his good and bad nights are.

Whether he meant to or not, Skinner may have summarized the issue better than anyone: the Oilers win when he’s great. Lately, that hasn’t been often enough.

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