San Jose has added to its forward group by signing winger Jeff Skinner to a one-year contract with a $3M AAV, according to Eric Stephens of The Athletic. Skinner had 16 goals and 29 points in 72 regular season games with the Edmonton Oilers. He was healthy-scratched for most of the postseason and it sure seemed as if he would be elsewhere for the 2025-26 season, which he indeed is.

This move is both a good and bad thing for Skinner's fantasy value. He is going to a team where there won't be near as much competition for top-6 minutes, so it seems a fair bet that the 13 minutes he skated per game last season won't be repeated this season. On the flipside, he just had a 29-point effort playing on a team with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, and Evan Bouchard. Now he's on a team that has none of those players. Macklin Celebrini is a superstar in the making, Will Smith had an excellent rookie effort, and William Eklund is budding into a great playmaker. None of them are the calibre of the players that Skinner is leaving. So, if he skates 15 minutes a game instead of 13 minutes, how much better can things get?

The big concern for the fantasy value, though, is the power-play time. Celebrini is a lock for top PP time, Smith, Eklund, and Tyler Toffoli all have a claim, and now there's Skinner. Maybe the team runs a 5-forward power play, but if not, one of them is going to get the short end of the stick. It is a very real possibility that Skinner gets more secondary power-play time than top power-play time.

On top of all that, there is genuine age-related decline to be concerned about. Skinner is 33 years old and is no longer the top-line scorer he was. Improving on the 29 points is very realistic, but getting back to 60 points is a longshot, and even a 50-point season would be a good year. If it looks like he's going to get top line/top power-play billing, that changes the equation. Anything else, though, and we can't expect much more than a 20-goal, 50-point season. Keep in mind that Eklund skated 19:33 per game last year, got top line minutes at even strength, and was on the top PP unit more often than not, and he had 58 points in 77 appearances. Now imagine what Skinner will do with worse deployment and 4-5 fewer minutes a game.