The San Jose Sharks scratched off, perhaps, the last item on their offseason to-do list when they signed forward Jeff Skinner to a one-year, $3 million contract on Friday.
Skinner was the latest veteran added to complement and help guide the Sharks’ promising young core through the pivotal next phase of their rebuild. After stripping down the roster and basically starting over from scratch with high draft picks such as forwards Macklin Celebrini (No. 1 in the 2024 NHL Draft), Will Smith (No. 4 in 2023 draft) and William Eklund (No. 7 in 2021 draft) and defenseman Sam Dickinson (No. 11 in the 2024 draft), San Jose went into the offseason with a plan to reinforce that group with experienced players to assist with their development and, hopefully, become more competitive.
The Sharks have a lot of room for improvement after they went 20-50-12 last season to finish last in the NHL for the second straight season and miss the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the sixth season in a row.
“I think we need to start pushing this forward,” Sharks general manager Mike Grier said Friday. “We’ve got a lot of ground to make up to climb up the standings, but we’ve kind of done what we’ve had to do the last three years. Now, it’s definitely important (to win more) because losing is hard on everyone, it can wear on people.
“And winning and winning habits and playing winning hockey and go through those little things that it takes to win night in and night out in the NHL is important. For us to be a better team and win more games and be more competitive I think is definitely going to help the growth of these young guys and something that was important for us to try and help them out with.”
The signing of Skinner, a veteran of 15 NHL seasons with 699 points (373 goals, 326 assists) in 1,078 regular-season games, followed a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs for forward Ryan Reaves on Thursday. Skinner, who will likely play on the first or second line, and Reaves, who will likely play on the fourth line, join a strengthened forward group that previously added Adam Gaudette (two-year, $4 million contract) and Philipp Kurashev (one-year, $1.2 million contract).
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