New Penguins goaltender Stuart Skinner enjoys 'being comfortable being uncomfortable'

To paraphrase the late Hall of Fame broadcaster Mike Lange, goaltender Stuart Skinner has seen that fish before.

In this case, the fish in question was a future Hall of Famer, Connor McDavid.

During the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 6-4 home loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday, McDavid, one of the most spellbinding players in the history of the NHL, burst into the offensive zone like a comet, bulled his way through a positionally sound check by Penguins defenseman Parker Wotherspoon and attacked the net.

Skinner, four days removed from being traded by the Oilers to the Penguins, had a strong feeling of what to expect. After all, he had seen McDavid’s brilliance on countless occasions in practice sessions.

But like just about any other goaltender McDavid has encountered in a game of consequence, Skinner was left gasping for air.

Upon his arrival at the crease, McDavid showed a forehand shot, then tucked an adroit backhander by the left skate of a stunned Skinner for a power-play goal.

OH MY GOSH, CONNOR MCDAVID!! ????

????: @NHL_On_TNT & @StreamOnMax ➡️ https://t.co/4TuyIATi3T pic.twitter.com/3UjRtPlkMY

— NHL (@NHL) December 17, 2025

“He’s got a lot of moves in his pocket,” said Skinner, who stopped 17 of 22 shots Tuesday. “As he came in close. I just felt like he was going to go five-hole, because he’s done that to me a few times in practice. So, I just kind of played it safe, where I think next time, I won’t be playing it as safe.”

It’s safe to say Penguins management had legitimate hopes for Skinner upon acquiring him as part of the franchise-altering trade that sent All-Star goaltender Tristan Jarry to Edmonton.

The 27-year-old Skinner was the Oilers’ primary starter in net the previous three seasons and helped that club reach the Stanley Cup Finals in each of the past two years (losing to the Florida Panthers on both occasions). He was also selected as an All-Star and to the NHL’s All-Rookie team during the 2022-23 season.

But those accomplishments won’t lead to automatic work with his new team.

Back in April, Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas declared an open competition for the goaltending positions on the NHL club entering the 2025-26 season and it has mostly played out that way.

Jarry and rookie Arturs Silovs largely split starts for the bulk of the campaign, and promising prospect Sergei Murashov has been in the net sporadically upon recalls from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League.

Another prospect with pedigree, Joel Blomqvist, might have been in the conversation were it not for an undisclosed injury suffered during the preseason.

Skinner understands he is in a battle for playing time.

“Absolutely,” Skinner said. “It’s a competitive league. If you look all around the league, everyone is always trying to take a spot. Everyone is always trying obviously to become that starting goalie. It’s awesome. (Silovs), he’s a fantastic goalie. Watching him play and how athletic he is, it’s very impressive.”

Like Silovs (6-foot-4, 208 pounds), Skinner has some impressive size (6-4, 215 pounds). The only goaltenders in Penguins history who stood taller have been Magnus Hellberg (6-6) and Matt Murray (6-5), while Thomas Greiss (219 pounds) is the only netminder who has tipped the scales to a greater degree than Skinner for the club.

His dimensions are his most prominent asset in stopping pucks.

“I’m definitely doing a better job at being in the right position to make myself as big as possible,” Skinner said. “That’s something that I’ve learned over the past couple of years. I would say that’s an advantage for me. I’m trying to take as much of that as I possibly can. I’m still learning how to make that consistent and just giving myself the best chance every single night to be big in there and make big saves.”

The saves weren’t quite plentiful this season with the Oilers, and that led to his departure. Before the trade, he skated in 23 games for the Oilers and posted an 11-8-4 record, a 2.83 goals-against average, an .891 save percentage and two shutouts.

That led to plenty of scrutiny over his performance in hockey-mad Edmonton. But Skinner’s affable nature seems to be ideal for dealing with the typically binary critiques (i.e., pass or fail) that come with his position.

“Just being a goalie, I think you’ve got to be adaptable,” said Skinner, a third-round draft pick (No. 78 overall) in 2017. “There’s so many situations that I’ve been in through my experience of getting sent up, sent down, sent down again, sent back up (from a minor-league affiliate) and different places, different situations. I learned that at quite a young age that, you can’t take things too, too seriously. And that you also got to be adaptable in the way that your routine is.

“Being comfortable being uncomfortable. I really try to take pride in that because you never know situations and you’ve got to be able to play well, even though you maybe don’t feel good or if something in your routine doesn’t go the way as planned.”

Not much went as planned — or hoped, more accurately — in Skinner’s debut for the Penguins. He was frank in auditing his performance.

In particular, a goal by Oilers rookie forward Matt Savoie from the left circle that clunked off Skinner’s left leg during the second period was particularly unappetizing.

Matt Savoie sneaks the puck past Stuart Skinner, 3-1 Oilers.

????: Sportsnet pic.twitter.com/xbXwVvbOon

— Oilersnation.com, Oily Since ‘07 (@OilersNation) December 17, 2025

Later in the second frame, Oilers defenseman Evan Bouchard fired a wrister from the high slot by Skinner’s blocker.

This is just gross from Evan Bouchard.

????: Sportsnet pic.twitter.com/sr8ak2AjRO

— Oilersnation.com, Oily Since ‘07 (@OilersNation) December 17, 2025

“I didn’t really like the way I was moving, especially in the second period,” Skinner said. “Then obviously, the Savoie goal can’t go in. And I think the Bouchard goal is a bad read on my part. I was staying on my goal line, and he roofs it, and I know he’s got a good shot, so I need to respect that. Those two I need to, for sure, have.

“Then the other ones, I just got to battle to make the save and give the team a chance to win the game.”

Skinner has a chance to gain significant financial security this upcoming offseason as a pending unrestricted free agent. Typically, players with his level of service time and at his age are in a position to sign the largest contracts of their career.

In the final year of a three-year contract with a salary cap hit of $2.6 million, Skinner understands what success with the Penguins could mean for him. But he’s not dwelling on it.

“It (a new contract) was on my mind kind of at the start of the season,” Skinner said. “Then, as things went on, I started realizing that I’ve just got to stay in my own process and kind of focus on what I do.

“If you do that, things will happen for you.”