Skinner battled odds to help Oilers reach Stanley Cup Final

SUNRISE, Fla. -- As the youngest of nine siblings, Stuart Skinner had little choice but to be born competitive.

Growing up, the Edmonton Oilers goalie had to battle for everything in his own household, including getting to play in net, so it’s little wonder he’s been successful early in his NHL career, getting to the Stanley Cup Final in his second full season.

“Growing up, my parents did not want me to play goalie and it took a lot of convincing,” Skinner said Friday. “I asked them a whole bunch and I just did it. When the opportunity came when our team needed a goalie, I volunteered to be the goalie. I’m sure they were a little upset, but we’re all happy about it now.”

Skinner has come a long way since his minor hockey days and will get the start for Edmonton against the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the best-of-7 Final here at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS, CBC).

Skinner has battled the odds and proven the critics wrong with his play to this point in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and even his opponent at the other end of the ice, Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, is admiring what the 25-year-old has done.

“It’s definitely a great achievement for him. I wasn’t even close to that in my second year. I was a backup goalie at that point, and I think it’s great for him,” Bobrovsky said Friday. “He’s a good goalie. You’re not going to make the Final if you’re a bad goalie. He’s a good positional goalie, and I think he’s very composed and he has a good mind.”

Throughout his career, Skinner has been commended for his mental makeup. The Edmonton native rarely seems upset and has an ability to overcome adversity in situations where others may be overwhelmed.

Skinner did hit a speed bump in the Western Conference Second Round against the Vancouver Canucks, getting pulled in Game 3 and sitting out the next two games of the best-of-7 series. However, he made a triumphant return in Game 6 with the Oilers facing elimination and has been outstanding since.

“He’s laid back and relaxed, but he’s very tuned in with the competitive side to be successful,” said Dave Rathjen, Skinner's goalie coach in junior with the Swift Current Broncos of the Western Hockey League. “There’s a neat balance there; he wants to get to the bottom of things and then he wants to improve from that. Whether it’s a goal against, or a question or a grey area, he works hard to figure out and solve that issue and move on and get ready for the next game, which is very important for a goalie.”

Due to his struggles early in the second round, there were questions regarding how Skinner would fare against the Dallas Stars in the conference final compared to his counterpart Jake Oettinger. Skinner went on to outplay Oettinger and was outstanding in Game 6, making 33 saves in a 2-1 victory that won the best-of-7 series for the Oilers.

Heading into the Final, the goaltending advantage is being given to Florida with Bobrovsky, but Rathjen expects Skinner to rise to the occasion.

“I think that he likes challenges and I think that his goaltending has gotten better, and as he plays more premier goaltenders at the other end of the rink in the playoffs, he’s competitive that way,” Rathjen said. “It’s going to be really exciting to see how he plays against one of the best goaltenders in the League in Bobrovsky. I’d expect him to be highly competitive and confident in the net.”

Skinner is familiar with pressure situations and has won in the past. He won the 2018 WHL championship with Swift Current after being acquired from Lethbridge that season. Rathjen expects another standout performance from Skinner in the Final against the Panthers.

“I was anticipating and feeling the stress when he had to have that little two-game break. I think everybody did,” Rathjen said. “And then getting put in an elimination game and [to] perform the way he did was impressive. But if there was anyone that you felt was going to be calm under pressure, it would be him.”

Edmonton showed confidence in Skinner early this season when the team was struggling and dropped to the bottom of the NHL standings. The Oilers made Skinner the No. 1 goalie when they waived Jack Campbell on Nov. 7 and sent him down to Bakersfield of the AHL.

“We made the decision to put [Campbell] on waivers and if he cleared, he was going to the minors. And then we called Stu in and told him that it was his opportunity to grab the reins,” Oilers general manager Ken Holland said Friday. “We told him we believed in him. He won 29 games for us last year (29-14-5), he was a candidate for the Calder Trophy and he was 25 years of age, and we thought it was his time.”

Skinner said he is up for the challenge of the Final and that all the adversity he endured throughout his career has prepared him for this moment.

“It’s just an enjoyable moment to kind of look back and see the whole process of where we are today. It’s an amazing feat,” he said. “But we have a ton more work to do and more enjoyable experiences to go through and a lot more adversity to go through.”