With the Pittsburgh Penguins entering the offseason after a brief return to the postseason, TribLive will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 53 individuals signed to an NHL contract — including those whose deals do not begin until future seasons — with the organization.
Starting with veteran Noel Acciari and going on through to prospect Bill Zonnon, every player will be profiled in alphabetical order (with newly acquired forward Oliver Okuliar tacked on after Zonnon).
This series is scheduled to be published every day until June 24, two days before the start of the NHL Draft. In the event of a transaction, that schedule will be altered as necessary.
(Note: All contract information courtesy of Puckpedia.)
Stuart Skinner
Position: Goaltender
Catches: Left
Age: 27
Height: 6-foot-4
Weight: 215 pounds
2025-26 NHL regular season statistics: 50 games, 23-17-9 record, 2.92 goals-against average, .888 save percentage, two shutouts
2025-26 NHL postseason statistics: Three games, 0-3 record, 2.89 goals-against average, .892 save percentage, zero shutouts
Contract: In the final year of a three-year contract with a salary cap hit of $2.6 million. Pending unrestricted free agent on July 1.
Acquired: Trade, Dec. 12, 2025
Last season: It’s difficult to imagine many players in the NHL who faced more scrutiny entering 2025-26 than Stuart Skinner.
He was the goaltender who helped the Edmonton Oilers reach each of the previous two Stanley Cup Finals but had lost on both occasions to the Florida Panthers. And, he was the goaltender of the Edmonton Oilers in one of the most intense hockey markets on earth.
Skinner largely did not meet the outrageous demands foisted upon him from the outset of the season as he and the Oilers sputtered in the first two-plus months of the season.
Through their first 31 games of the season, the Oilers sat in a Wild Card position while Skinner had cobbled together mundane figures such as an 11-8-4 record, a 2.83 goals-against average, an .891 save percentage and two shutouts in 23 games.
— EN Videos (@ENVideos19) June 19, 2026
On Dec. 12, Oilers management swung a major trade when they dealt Skinner, defenseman Brett Kulak and a second-round draft pick in 2019 in exchange for goaltender Tristan Jarry and forward Sam Poulin.
While the frustrating Jarry largely struggled in Edmonton, Skinner was adequate but hardly perfect while platooning in net for the Penguins with rookie Arturs Silovs.
After losing his first three starts with his new team, Skinner guided the Penguins to one of their signature victories of the season on Dec. 30, a 5-1 home victory against the Carolina Hurricanes, a steady nemesis of the Penguins.
STUUUUUUU ????️ ????️ ????️ pic.twitter.com/Vovnm9hznN
— SportsNet Pittsburgh (@SNPittsburgh) December 31, 2025
That triumph was the start of a strong stretch for Skinner, who went 8-1-0 in nine games over the next month, along with a 2.01 goals-against average and .917 save percentage over nine games.
— EN Videos (@ENVideos19) June 19, 2026
But as the NHL’s Olympics break approached in February, Skinner cooled off and never seemed to sustain much success for the remainder of the season. From Feb. 3 to the conclusion of the regular season, Skinner appeared in 15 games and posted a 4-5-5 record, a 3.35 goals-against average and an .878 save percentage.
Based partially on Skinner’s postseason experience with the Oilers, Penguins coaches opted to put Skinner in net to open the postseason. He was perfectly sufficient in the three games he played, but with the Penguins facing a 0-3 deficit in their best-of-seven opening round series to the Philadelphia Flyers, Skinner gave way to Silovs for the final three contests.
The future: In his season-ending availability on May 12, Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas barely mentioned Skinner and largely spoke to the success of Silovs as well as the potential of prospects Sergei Murashov, Joel Blomqvist and even Taylor Gauthier.
Suffice it to say, management doesn’t seem terribly interested in retaining Skinner and will likely allow him to depart via free agency on July 1.
In his four and a half months with the Penguins, Skinner was fine but rarely seemed like he was on the verge of offering a dominant performance, admittedly while largely playing behind a spotty defense. A large goaltender who relies on his size more than his reflexes, Skinner is more likely to win 5-4 games than 2-1 contests.
If the Penguins didn’t have an embarrassment of riches in net in their prospect pool, chances are that management would likely make efforts to retain Skinner. But with Murashov making a strong push to graduate to the NHL, there just isn’t room for Skinner.
But with the free agent market projected to have limited options, Skinner, who turns 28 on Nov. 1, will have plenty of suitors ready to offer him lucrative long-term deals given his affable nature, youth and experience.