EDMONTON — Stuart Skinner was 20 years old in Wichita, Kansas, embarking on a pro career in the exact spot where you are supposed to embark on a pro career: On the bottom rung of a tall ladder.
The City of Wichita gave the world Pizza Hut and Cessna airplanes. What it hasn’t given the world is an excess of hockey players, and as Skinner looked up and down that Wichita Thunder roster, he knew it would be a long, sometimes Sisyphean climb to reach the top.
And even then, at that Midwest moment on an ECHL team, “the top” was AHL Bakersfield.
“Getting sent down to the East Coast League, you know, it just makes you think about different things. The NHL seems very far away, at that point,” Skinner said last week.
Pierre-Cedric Labrie (46 NHL games). Hayden Hodgson (seven). John McFarland (three). Dylan Wells (one).
On a Wichita roster that would employ 53 players over the course of the 2018-19 season, those are the only members of the fabulous, fifth-place Thunder who have summitted the hockey world.
Oh, and the goalie made it too. A kid from Edmonton.
You can watch him this weekend at … (wait for it) … the NHL’s All-Star weekend.
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Stuart Skinner, National Hockey League All-Star.
We’re not in Kansas anymore.
“I started getting into more self-help books, mental books,” Skinner said, asked how he began the journey. “I found stoicism and (author) Ryan Holiday, and then found some more books. Read David Goggins’ books too, about how your body can go through a lot more than what you think. Which (helps) both mentally and physically.
“I guess the big thing is, I’m always trying to grow and always trying to find something that I can use to get there.”
Today, Skinner is as confident as you want your goalie to be. But you’d never know it.
Ask him about stopping Elias Pettersson on a breakaway and he’ll give you a quote. But he’d rather talk about nature.
“I love being out in trees. I love going for walks. I love being by the ocean,” Skinner said. “Being out in nature, in God’s creation, you feel in the moment. It’s something that brings you back to Earth and keeps you grounded. Looking at the ocean or going for a walk in the forest or by trees in the ravine here in Edmonton? It just kind of lets you be grateful.”
The greatest goaltender in Oilers history invented the word that Skinner’s teammates use to describe him.
“Chilled.”
Grant Fuhr was chilled, long before the term extended beyond Coors Lite.
“He’s got a great demeanor. He’s a super-chilled guy, and I think it translates well with our position,” said Jack Campbell, the other side of an Oilers tandem that is finding some traction lately. “Super calm, cool and collected on and off the ice. And he’s got a great sense of humour.”
Skinner looks at it sensibly.
Bad goals are going to go in. Good goals are going to go in as well. “It’s the NHL,” he reasoned. “It’s hard to get a shutout.”
He gets sour at himself sometimes. But you can’t tell anymore.
“When I was a kid, I was loud, and I was very energetic. Trying to get the attention because I was the youngest of nine,” Skinner explained. “But throughout the years, you grow up. You learn about yourself and what helps you be at your best. How to just be a good person.
“Somewhere down that road, I relaxed. Just tried to chill out.”
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This weekend, Skinner will stop some pucks in Florida, while some others will elude him. Spending time among such an elite group of hockey players will be his second best memory of 2023, right behind the birth of Beau, the first child to Stu and Chloe Skinner.
“You can’t really describe it, how much you love him. It’s really something that is hard to put into words, how special it is,” Skinner said. “And when you hold him the first time? It’s just. … You just get a whole abundance of love.”
When he returns from Florida, a Stanley Cup run awaits. Him, 20-some teammates and a couple million of their closest friends in Northern Alberta are counting on taking this thing another step up the ladder, from an appearance in the Western Conference Final last spring to something more in 2023.
Skinner grew up as an Oilers fan. He watched games from the pews in Rexall Place. He cheered on Doug Weight and Ryan Smyth.
Could it really end with a Stanley Cup? Could a local boy actually pen a story like this?
Are you allowed to dream that big? What do the books say?
“Oh, you’re definitely allowed to think about that,” he said. “I was talking to one of my good friends yesterday, and he was saying that it’s OK to be into where you are right now. To reward yourself for that, and know how special it is.
“Know where you are. The players that you get to be around and the situation you’re in. It’s OK to celebrate that.
“I dreamed as a kid to be in this situation. I dreamed as a kid that the Oilers would win the Stanley Cup, and now I’m in a position to do both. I’m doing one (playing for the Oilers), and hopefully we can win a Stanley Cup here.”
What would THAT be like?
“Oh, that’d be something else … ”
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