Sharks’ Jeff Skinner is out week to week

The San Jose Sharks will continue on without one of their veteran wingers. Jeff Skinner is set to miss about two weeks with aa lower-body injury, head coach Ryan Warsofsky told Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News. Skinner was placed on injured reserve on Nov. 15, and won’t be eligible to return until Nov. 22 at the soonest.

Skinner suffered his injury in San Jose’s Nov. 13 loss to the Calgary Flames, after getting tangled up with Flames winger Rory Kerins and tumbling into the boards. He appeared to be in immediate pain and needed help off the ice. Luckily, he avoided the worst of injury, with Warsofsky quiping that San Jose got lucky with Skinner’s timeline.

Skinner has had an up-and-down start to his tenure in San Jose. He started the season with a four-game scoring streak, but followed it with a four-game scoring drought that ended with a healthy scratch on Oct. 26. Skinner returned from the press box to three points in five games, but was riding a three-game scoring drought prior to his injury. On the year, he has recorded four points, a minus-four and 29 shots on goal in 16 games.

That’s a far fall for a winger who is only four seasons removed from back-to-back 30-goal seasons, and a career-high 82 points in the Buffalo Sabres’ 2022-23 campaign. His scoring tumbled to 46 points in the following year, then to only 29 points with the Edmonton Oilers last season.

Skinner will need to find a way to spur that scoring when he returns in December. Meanwhile, Warsofsky also shared that 2025 second-overall pick Michael Misa — also week-to-week with a lower-body injury — will take a bit longer to recover per Max Miller of San Jose Hockey Digest. Misa sustained his injury during practice and hadn’t carved out a role in the Sharks’ lineup prior. He has three points through his first seven NHL games. 

A longer-than-two-weeks designation will put Misa on track to return just before the holiday season — or, just before the 2026 World Junior Championships, which the star prospect wasn’t selected for last season. He would be a true X factor for Team Canada if San Jose used the tournament to spur Misa’s return from injury.