Oilers' Jeff Skinner on joining a contender, playing with Leon Draisaitl, comedy and more: Q&A

EDMONTON Kris Knoblauch doesnt express shortcomings with his roster publicly often let alone repeatedly.

Thats what made his frequent noting of Leon Draisaitl s lack of elite wingers last season so telling.

Hockey operations CEO Jeff Jackson heard the coachs message loud and clear heading into July 1.

Acting as Edmonton Oilers GM after Ken Hollands departure, he signed veteran winger Jeff Skinner .

Its Skinner along with fellow signee Viktor Arvidsson wholl flank Draisaitl to start the season.

Advertisement The upgrade is obvious to the coach given Skinner has 357 goals in 1,006 NHL games.

Hes a playmaker, a guy who can get Leon the puck, find open ice, can score goals, Knoblauch said.

You look at his career, youre looking at 25 to 40 goals a season.

Not too many guys can say they scored 25 and hes done it continuously.

Skinner came to the Oilers on a discount deal one year for $3 million, after being bought out by the Buffalo Sabres .

His eight-year, $72 million contract had three seasons remaining.

The 32-year-old has lots to prove as joins his new team.

Infamously, hes played the most regular season games in NHL history for someone having never appeared in the postseason.

That should change by April.

Skinner spoke to The Athletic about picking the Oilers in free agency, what didnt work in Buffalo, playing with Draisaitl, past connections with his new teammates and his comedic presence.

Note: This interview has been edited slightly for length and clarity.

Have you ever felt as much anticipation entering a season as you have with this one? Every season you have a lot of excitement and optimism.

Obviously, theres a lot for me personally thats changed: different situation, new teammates, new coaching staff, new training staff.

All of those things maybe amp things up a little bit.

Im definitely excited to get going.

The last couple weeks have been real fun getting to know everyone.

Im itching to get started.

What was that week like from the end of June to July 1, going from getting bought out to getting a contract and going to contender? There were a lot of discussions with my agent.

But having never been through free agency, its a new experience.

We try and take in as much information as you can from agents, from your family members, from your friends, from other big players around the league you may know, or you train with.

Then you just kind of try and sort through things and end up trying to make the best decision possible.

There were a lot of things going on and really happy with how it turned out.

Advertisement Were you surprised to get the news you were being bought out? Im sure you liked the contract, but was it almost nice to have the weight or the burden of those expectations to maybe be taken off you? Um, I dont know.

The buyout, I wouldnt say it came as a surprise.

As a player, the longer youve been around, the more you can sort of pick up on the little things that happen little signs of where you stand.

I know it sort of didnt come out in the media and materialize until the last week or two weeks before it happened.

But its one of those things where Ive been around long enough to know how things work, and how the business works and where you stand in that.

It just happened the way it did, and I ended up in a pretty good spot.

Im pretty excited about the year coming up.

Tell me about the Oilers pitch to you.

What was it like? You know the roster.

You saw how far they got.

Was it like, Heres a spot next to Leon Draisaitl waiting for you? Was that the appeal? For sure.

That plays a big role.

As a winger, you look at their centre depth.

Thats a pretty good roster.

The run they went on, the experience they gained from that, Im excited to learn from guys.

But it was more their interest right away.

Id been bought out, so there was sort of a little bit of a window there (before July 1).

Obviously, theres a lot of things happening.

The season basically just ended.

Everyone was getting ready for the draft.

I know teams are sorting through a lot of things.

They have restricted free agents, and they have to deal with a lot of things before they can move on to UFAs.

Edmonton was pretty interested from the start.

Other teams make their pitches to your agent, or show the amount of interest they have in different ways.

But Edmonton being interested right from the start was a pretty good feeling.

You look for things that you want to check off on a checklist of things that a team presents to you.

Edmonton checked off all the boxes.

I was really excited that they were interested and really happy with how it turned out.

Advertisement I suppose the likelihood of being in the playoffs would be one of those boxes that the Oilers checked off.

Yeah! Being on a competitive team was at the top of my list.

Every team is starting at 0-0, but you try and give yourself the best opportunity.

Just looking at the run they went on, the guys they have returning, the impact players they have, seems like a pretty good fit for me.

I just try and slide in there and try and be a complementary piece.

I asked about Draisaitl earlier.

I know its very early you havent even played a game with him yet but hows the chemistry process been and are you seeing any similarities to maybe a guy like Jack Eichel , who you played with? The chemistry kind of builds.

Its hard to really assess early on, especially in camp.

There are bodies rotating in and out and a lot of different looks on the back end.

Its hard to get into a rhythm.

But if you cant find chemistry with him, youve probably got to fix some things in your game.

(Laughs.) Ive played with a lot of great players in my career.

The size is something that I mean, looking back recently, I played with Tage Thompson in the middle.

Theyre two big guys that use their body well.

Everyones seen him enough to know his skill set.

As a winger, its your job to read off him and go to the space that he creates.

Eventually, you get more and more comfortable playing with each other and more and more time sort of communicating those gray areas that pop up in game situations.

So far in camp, its been fun getting to play with him.

Is five-on-five where you think youre going to make your mark here.

Kris Knoblauch said the other day that probably nobodys coming off that first power-play unit.

(Smiles.) I hope so.

I think this is the best PP in history.

You probably (should) keep that together.

(Laughs.) Even you understand where hes coming from then.

Yeah.

But theres so many impact players that can make plays out of nothing here.

The more we can get together and read off each other, the more things will open up again.

When you have good players, they open up space.

Its just taking advantage of that space thats created.

Advertisement Obviously, the power play is very good and really dynamic, and you definitely need that to be successful.

If you look at the game, the majority of the game is played at five-on-five, so you have to be solid there, and you have to create offence and be successful five-on-five.

You said after you signed that you know some guys on the team.

Did you train with any of them around Toronto this summer? No.

I know a lot of them train in the Toronto area.

Ive been on the ice with a few of them over the years.

Brownie ( Connor Brown ), Leo, Connor (McDavid), Hymes and Nursey all work out at the same place.

But yeah; there are a lot of connections.

Nuge and Pers ( Corey Perry ) I played at worlds with quite a while back (in 2012).

Picks ( Calvin Pickard ), I played the Hlinka with him (in 2009).

That would have been 15 years ago.

There are a lot of familiar faces.

Hockey is familiar.

You run into guys over the years, and you play with guys that have played with guys.

That parts been nice.

Its been an easy adjustment for me to get comfortable right away.

Your oldest connection is probably Zach Hyman .

Oh, yeah.

I forgot to mention that.

Whats your favourite story of Zach Hyman from minor hockey? Oh.

(Smiles).

I dont know if I have a specific one.

(Laughs.) We were on a pretty good team back then.

That was the (Toronto) Jr.

Canadiens .

Way back.

I honestly cant remember.

We were probably 9 or 10 years old.

There were a couple other good players on that team.

(Tyler) Toffoli was on that team.

Was Sam Carrick ? He was on the Markham team when I played there.

Im trying to think (who else).

Devante Smith-Pelly? Smith-Pelly was on that team.

That does sound like a pretty good team.

Yeah.

There were a couple really good players that played in the OHL and played pro for a while.

Its cool.

You look back and reflect on it.

Obviously, this was a long way off.

(Laughs.) To be able to look back and realize that our paths have crossed is pretty cool.

Advertisement Did you see a 50-goal scorer in there (in Hyman) back then? I mean, I think if I did, Id be in management already.

(Laughs.) I mean, obviously hes a good player.

He was a good player back then.

But looking forward to see his career path, for a lot of people watching, its inspiring.

Its a good story.

Im happy to be on his team (again).

Just a couple more for you.

Are you going to bring back Between 2 Stalls ? I dont know.

(Smiles.) That seems to be a hot topic.

Theres a couple things.

First off, you really need to know your teammates.

Im not sure if Im there yet.

Second of all, theres a lot of guys on this guys on this team that dont need to be interviewed any more than they are.

(Laughs.) So I think its on hold for now.

So, its on hiatus? Ill keep it in the back pocket.

I guess that means you havent determined a good co-host yet.

(Smiles.) We havent discussed anything, no.

I ask because you clearly seem like youre into comedy.

Do you have any comedic influences or people that you like to watch or listen to? Well, that show is obviously Zach Galifianakis-inspired or whatever.

I enjoy all comedians.

Its tough.

Theyve got to toe the line a lot more than in the past, and there seems to be I dont want to say scandals but there seems to be a lot of backlash against comedians these days, which is a tough spot to put them in.

Im not wading into any of those waters.

But I pretty much like all of them.

I even like going to local shows in Toronto in the summer.

It takes a lot of courage to get up there and speak in front of people, so its pretty cool thing they do.

For sure.

Well, if you bring back Between 2 Stalls, I recommend Calvin Pickard as your co-host.

(Smiles.) Thats a good point, actually.

Yeah, hed be a good one.

(Photo: Sergei Belski / Imagn Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.