NHL Future Watch: Stuart Skinner Hockey Cards, Edmonton Oilers

NHL Future Watch: Stuart Skinner Hockey Cards, Edmonton Oilers – Stuart Skinner was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers with the 78th overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft. Though, I had him pegged as a second-round talent, he slipped to the third. Goaltenders take longer to develop than forwards, on average, so Skinner has been perfecting his craft. Now he’s starting to put it all together to provide timely goaltending for the Oilers in their quest for the Stanley Cup.

At 6’4”, 205 pounds, Skinner has always presented a problem for shooters trying to find open spots in the net. He played five seasons in the WHL mostly for the Lethbridge Hurricanes and a final playoff run with the Swift Current Broncos. With Swift Current in 2018, Skinner went on a Memorial Cup run. He was a WHL champion and fell short of that tournament, but he went out with a .932 save percentage and a 16-8-2 playoff record.

Since 2018-19, Skinner has been playing games in the AHL with the Bakersfield Condors and the Wichita Thunder in the ECHL. Many times, good goalies must play in the ECHL because there are only so many starts to go around, and they wanted Skinner to take those reps.

Skinner has played in 131 games to date. Now 23, he is blossoming. His AHL save percentage was .946 in the early part of the 2021-22 season. With the Oilers, it was almost as impressive. A .928 after six games. The Oilers have needed a boost in their goaltending for the past few years and Skinner is now providing some of that.

Skinner is fast up and down. He’s good in the splits, aggressive on odd-man rushes, and he makes nice saves while moving. Skinner closes the five-hole well. He reads plays and doesn’t overreact. It’s hard to pick out who is going to be the next solid NHL goalie, but Skinner seems like he is the Oilers’ goaltender of the future.

NHL Future Watch: Stuart Skinner Hockey Cards, Edmonton Oilers – Cards Worth Chasing

The first card to collect is his  2020-21 Upper Deck Series 2 Young Guns Rookie Card. The shot shows Skinner guarding the twine.

Another good card is his 2020-21 O-Pee-Chee Platinum Marquee Rookie Card. It’s a different shot of him in net this time. It looks like he’s covering up the puck with the referee looking on.

One last cool card is Skinner’s 2016 Team Canada Juniors card. He’s wearing his country’s colors. It doesn’t get better than that.

NHL Future Watch: Stuart Skinner Hockey Cards, Edmonton Oilers – Stats

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Russ Cohen

Russ Cohen is an accomplished writer for www.sportsology.info and radio host for the Sportsology Radio Network and covers multiple sports including writing specifically about the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers. He has numerous articles published on NHL.com and other team websites as well as Slam, CSNPhilly.com and FoxSports.com. Some of his articles have appeared in Canadian Sports Collector, Goalie News, New England Hockey Journal, The Hockey News, Beckett Hockey, Blueshirt Bulletin, NHL Publications and he has a monthly column in Center Ice Magazine that is distributed to every amateur hockey rink in the Pennsylvania. Russ has been asked to be a guest on several radio shows as a respected and valued expert on sports and has extensive AM radio experience including Hockey Prospect Radio on NHL Network Radio for the last 14 years, plus TSN 1050 and Sportstalkny WLIE 540 AM.

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