{"id":430590,"date":"2026-01-26T09:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T09:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/430590\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T09:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T09:47:09","slug":"san-jose-sharks-jeff-skinner-faces-uncertainty-as-roster-evolves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/430590\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose Sharks’ Jeff Skinner faces uncertainty as roster evolves"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JOSE \u2013 At 33 years old and on a one-year contract<\/a>, veteran NHL winger Jeff Skinner likely does not fit into the San Jose Sharks\u2019 long-term plans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With the Sharks about to welcome back some injured players<\/a> to the active roster and precious few spots available,<\/a> it\u2019s perhaps now a matter of how much longer Skinner will be with the team this season.<\/p>\n

Skinner has been a healthy scratch for five straight games and could be on the outs again on Tuesday when the Sharks face the Vancouver Canucks<\/a> to begin a five-game road trip.<\/p>\n

Forwards Kiefer Sherwood and Philipp Kurashev and defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin could all be activated off injured reserve at some point during the trip, which lasts until Feb. 4. Sherwood and Mukhamadullin, in particular, might be available to face the Canucks.<\/p>\n

The Sharks currently only have one spot available on the 23-man roster after assigning winger Igor Chernyshov<\/a> to the Barracuda last week, perhaps leaving Skinner, who hasn\u2019t played in two weeks, in a precarious position.<\/p>\n

Skinner, who has 712 points in 1,110 career NHL games<\/a>, signed a one-year, $3 million contract<\/a> with the Sharks as a free agent in July. Due to a combination of injuries and healthy scratches, he\u2019s played in just 32 of the Sharks\u2019 50 games.<\/p>\n

Asked Sunday if he\u2019s requested a trade, Skinner said, \u201cI\u2019m aware of the roster situation. I\u2019m aware of the amount of young guys here, and sort of where I fit, obviously, in the big picture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not in control of that. I just come to practice and practice. Things go on like that, it\u2019s between managers or agents. As a player, I just worry about playing or practicing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sharks on Jan. 17 put veteran defenseman Nick Leddy on waivers to free up a roster spot for Vincent Desharnais, who was returning from an elbow injury. Leddy cleared and was assigned<\/a> to the Barracuda of the AHL.<\/p>\n

Asked on Thursday if he might need to place another player on waivers, Sharks general manager Mike Grier said, \u201cThat\u2019s definitely something that could be a possibility. We\u2019re going to have to look at everything to kind of get down to the number that we need to be at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skinner\u2019s last game came on Jan. 11 when the Sharks were blasted 7-2<\/a>\u00a0by the Vegas Golden Knights at SAP Center.<\/p>\n

Skinner had an assist in the loss for his sixth point in as many games but was replaced in the lineup by Ryan Reaves for the Sharks\u2019 next game against the Washington Capitals on Jan. 15 and hasn\u2019t played since.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a numbers thing,\u201d Warsofsky said recently when asked about Skinner. \u201cI think (Skinner) when he came back in there the last time he was scratched, gave us some good minutes, and played some good hockey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some development that needs to be had with some of our younger players, and they get a little bit of a leash. There\u2019s some guys that we want to see continue to take a look at, in a sense, but we know there\u2019s a lot of hockey left here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skinner has 13 points this season and is averaging 12:21 in ice time per game, as he\u2019s played mainly on the third line and been on the Sharks\u2019 second power play unit.<\/p>\n

Asked to evaluate his year so far, Skinner, now in his 16th NHL season, said, \u201cI think I feel like I was starting to find some rhythm and starting to find my game, and now we\u2019re here. It\u2019s tough to really fully assess and take a step back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think obviously the older you are, the more experience you have, the easier it is to have perspective in these situations. That\u2019s something that I\u2019m grateful to have. I just try and keep that perspective and just keep working.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skinner was scratched a handful of times last season as a member of the Edmonton Oilers, but said this was a \u201cmuch different situation.\u201d The Oilers were a veteran team chasing the Stanley Cup, while the Sharks have six forwards who are 23 or younger that they\u2019re trying to develop and build around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been around a long enough time to have seen guys in my position, and I\u2019m not special or different than any other player that\u2019s played in the league in the last 100 or whatever years,\u201d Skinner said. \u201cTo have experience, the best thing it does is give you perspective on sort of big pictures and scenarios, because I think everyone is doing the same thing day to day.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s working hard to try and get better and come to practice, be a good teammate and support each other, do all of those things day to day. The more you\u2019ve been around and seen sort of stuff like that, the more you can lean on experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skinner and Kurashev practiced Sunday but were not among the 12 forwards on the Sharks\u2019 main four lines.<\/p>\n

Skinner no doubt feels he can play at the NHL level. He had 82 points in 79 games for the Buffalo Sabres in 2022-23 and has 88 points in 178 games with the Sabres, Oilers and Sharks over the last two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the last few games I played, I feel like I was contributing positively to the team,\u201d Skinner said, \u201cand that was, I don\u2019t know, two weeks ago? I don\u2019t think I forgot how to play. I\u2019m pretty confident in myself to be able to contribute at this level.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2013 At 33 years old and on a one-year contract, veteran NHL winger Jeff Skinner likely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[6755,10831,2558,385,3804,835,59683,99],"class_list":["post-430590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-hockey","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nhl","tag-pm-report","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-sharks-alert","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}