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Stuart Skinner, Edmonton Oilers (Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Stuart Skinner’s Top 8 Games With the Edmonton Oilers

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Brian Swane | Last updated Dec 26, 2025 1:35 PM ET

Recently, Stuart Skinner was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the Pittsburgh Penguins, bringing an end to the goaltender’s tenure with his hometown team.

Skinner was drafted 78^th overall by Edmonton at the 2017 NHL Draft and went on to play parts of six seasons with the Oilers. Between the regular season and playoffs, he totalled 135 wins as an Oiler, and helped backstop Edmonton to back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances in 2024 and 2025.

While Skinner was never quite able to firmly solidify himself in Edmonton as a championship-calibre No. 1 netminder, which ultimately led to his being traded, he was around for some great games. Here’s a look:

First Regular Season Game

On Jan. 31, 2021, Skinner made his NHL regular season debut against the Ottawa Senators at Rogers Place, amid the most unique circumstances. This was during the pandemic, when NHL teams were playing in empty arenas devoid of fans, and rosters were in a constant state of flux.

With Edmonton’s de facto starting goaltender Mike Smith on long-term injured reserve, Mikko Koskinen had started 10 straight games between the pipes for the Oilers. Koskinen badly needed a night off, but Smith wasn’t ready to return to the lineup, so the Oilers turned to Skinner, who to that point had spent his entire pro career in the minors and wasn’t even on Edmonton’s active roster as of that morning.

Skinner was coming in ice cold. Because the minor leagues were completely shut down, it had been nearly 11 months since Skinner had played a single second of game action at any level. Now he was being thrust into his first NHL start.

At first glance, Skinner’s stats from that night aren’t pretty. He allowed five goals, tying for the most by an Oilers goalie in their first career game. But he faced a ton of rubber, and wound up making 33 saves, several of which were very impressive. Most importantly, he got a lot of run support, as Edmonton scored eight times, making Skinner a winner in his NHL debut. All things considered, it was a pretty impressive outing from the then-22-year-old.

Shootout Victory Against Jets

Skinner wouldn’t appear in another game with the Oilers until November 2021, when a lower-body injury to Smith necessitated that Skinner be recalled from the American Hockey League.

He lost his first two starts of the 2021-22 season, but in his third start, against the Winnipeg Jets at Rogers Place on Nov. 18, 2021, he delivered a performance that demonstrated he might have a real future in the NHL.

Skinner allowed just one goal on 39 shots in regulation, made eight saves in overtime, and then stopped two shootout attempts to lift Edmonton to a 2-1 victory over an explosive Jets squad.

He finished the game with 46 saves, which to this day is tied for the second most stops Skinner has made in an NHL regular season game. Skinner stood on his head throughout the game, stopping Winnipeg’s first 31 shots, and was particularly unbelievable in overtime, when he faced a shooting gallery while the Jets had a 4-on-3 power play for more than three minutes. It was a statement game for the 6-foot-4 netminder.

43-Save Shutout Against Kings

Skinner recorded nine shutouts as a member of the Oilers, but none more spectacular than the one against the Los Angeles Kings at Rogers Place on March 30, 2023.

Skinner backstopped Edmonton to a 2-0 triumph by stopping all 43 shots the Kings fired at him, including 19 in the third period. His 43 saves are tied for the most in a shutout victory in Edmonton’s NHL regular season history.

It was a pivotal win for playoff positioning, as Edmonton leapfrogged the Kings into second place in the Pacific Division with just two weeks remaining in the 2023-24 season. The Oilers ultimately clinched the second seed, securing home ice advantage for their first-round postseason matchup with the third-seeded Kings.

Edmonton eliminated Los Angeles in six games, rallying after falling behind 2-1. Skinner went 3-2, picking up wins in Games 2, 5 and 6.

Record-Setting Win Streak

In 2023-24, Edmonton authored one of the great turnarounds in hockey history, with Skinner playing a critical role.

After starting the season 5-12-1 and falling 10 points back of the Western Conference’s final playoff spot at U.S. Thanksgiving, Edmonton went 44-15-5 over its 64 games to climb to second place in the Pacific Division standings.

The Oilers then went on a playoff run all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, becoming the first NHL team since the 1968 St. Louis Blues to reach the championship series after starting the season with less than 12 points through its first 18 games.

Edmonton’s turnaround included a franchise-best streak of 16 straight victories from Dec. 21, 2023, to Jan. 27, 2024. During that span, Skinner went 12-0, setting a new benchmark for consecutive wins by an Oilers goalie.

The record had previously been held by Hockey Hall-of-Famer Grant Fuhr, who won 10 straight games with Edmonton during the 1985-86 season. Skinner picked up his 11^th win with a 26-save effort in a 4-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets at Rogers Place on Jan. 23.

Bounce Back in 2024 Playoffs

Over the first three games of Edmonton’s Round 2 matchup with the Vancouver Canucks in the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Skinner was not at his best, allowing 12 goals on 58 shots as the Oilers fell behind 2-1 in the series. So, for Game 4 at Rogers Place, Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch sat Skinner in favour of Calvin Pickard, a goalie with no prior NHL postseason experience.

The Oilers won Game 4 by a score of 3-2, with Pickard making 19 saves. That result led to Pickard getting a second consecutive start, in Game 5 at Rogers Arena, where Edmonton lost 3-2, despite a pretty good performance from Pickard, who stopped 32 shots.

With the Oilers on the brink of elimination, Knoblauch turned back to Skinner for Game 6. That decision was heavily scrutinized in Oil Country. After all, not only had Pickard played better than Skinner in the series, but no one knew how Skinner would respond after being benched. Turns out there was nothing to worry about.

Showing the remarkable resiliency that has become one of his defining traits, Skinner bounced back to backstop Edmonton to a 5-1 victory in Game 6, regaining his net in the process. Two nights later, he was between the pipes for Game 7 at Rogers Arena, making 15 saves as Edmonton defeated the Canucks by a score of 3-2 to advance to the Western Conference Final.

Ticket Punched to Stanley Cup Final

The electricity could be felt throughout the City of Edmonton on the day of Game 6 of the 2024 Western Conference Final. With a 3-2 series lead over the Dallas Stars, the Oilers were on the verge of their first Stanley Cup Final appearance in 18 years.

Stuart Skinner and Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers (Photo by Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images)

Inside Rogers Place, the energy was off the charts from puck drop, and it reached a fever pitch when the home team took a 2-0 lead into the second intermission, thanks to goals from Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman. The Oilers were just 20 minutes away from punching their ticket to the championship round, and the 18,000-plus fans could taste it. There was just one problem: the Stars were outplaying the Oilers. Badly.

It was only because of Skinner that Edmonton was ahead by two. Shots on goal through two periods were 21-8 in favour of Dallas, and it was about to get even worse.

In the third period, the Stars outshot Edmonton 13-2. They came in waves at Skinner, who managed to keep Dallas at bay until Mason Marchment scored at 9:18 to cut Edmonton’s lead to 2-1. The Oilers spent the last 10 minutes of the game under siege, but Skinner shut the door. Finally, the horn sounded, and Skinner was mobbed by his teammates as Rogers Place exploded in rapturous joy.

The final shot total: Stars 34, Oilers 10. Edmonton’s 10 shots are tied for the fewest ever by a victorious team in a Stanley Cup Playoff game. This was a game the Oilers had no business winning. But they did, thanks to their goalie.

Back-to-Back Playoff Shutouts

Against the Vegas Golden Knights in Round 2 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Skinner posted back-to-back shutouts to close out a series victory for the Oilers.

In Game 4 at Rogers Place, Skinner made 23 saves as Edmonton won 3-0 to take a 3-1 series lead. He then stopped all 24 shots he faced in Game 5 at T-Mobile Arena, where the Oilers won by a score of 1-0 in overtime to advance to the 2025 Western Conference Final.

Skinner joined Curtis Joseph and Cam Talbot as the only Oilers goaltenders with back-to-back shutouts in the postseason. When he finally gave up another goal, late in the first period of Game 1 of the Western Conference Final against Dallas, Skinner had a shutout streak of 142:42, fourth longest in Oilers playoff history.

100^th NHL Regular Season Win

During overtime at Canadian Tire Centre on Oct. 21, 2025, Edmonton’s Jake Walman took a pass in the slot and fired the puck past Ottawa Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark to lift the visiting Oilers to a 3-2 victory. The defenceman pumped his fist and twirled his wrists, celebrating his first game-winning goal as an Oiler.

At the other end of the ice, in Edmonton’s crease, Skinner raised his arms in triumph, celebrating what was the 100^th regular season victory of his career.

Skinner, who stopped 19 of the 21 Senators’ shots he faced, became just the sixth goaltender to reach triple-figure wins in the regular season as an Oiler. The others are among the most renowned netminders in franchise history: Fuhr, Talbot, Andy Moog, Bill Ranford, and Tommy Salo.

Most impressively, Skinner reached 100 wins as an Oiler in the third fewest games (179), behind only Fuhr (174) and Moog (163).

The 27-year-old goalie would go on to win nine more games with Edmonton, including his last start in orange and blue, against the Detroit Red Wings at home on Dec. 11. The next morning, he was traded.

Skinner concluded his Oilers tenure ranked second in playoff wins (26), second in playoff shutouts (four), fifth in regular season wins (109) and tied for fourth in regular season shutouts (nine). He’ll return to Edmonton in a little less than a month, when the Penguins visit Rogers Place for a matchup with the Oilers on Jan. 22.