NHL Profiles: Jeff Skinner, a 18-year-old Shining Star in the world of ice hockey
Jeff Skinner, the youngest player in the National Hockey League (NHL) was named the rookie of the month for January 2011. The 18-year-old has certainly made some big achievements in his short career, a little shy of 2 years.
Firstly, he is living what most Canadians at his age dream of and the success he has gained in this period will always be valuable for him later on in his career as a professional ice-hockey player.
Growing up in a loving family certainly makes a difference.
Skinner’s parents, Andrew and Elizabeth Skinner, have always supported him and loved him the same as his 5 siblings.
As hockey has always been his passion, his parents never doubted him at all and Skinner started playing for his school, eventually earning distinctions which led him to adopt a profession he loves.
Skinner started his career with the Hurricanes
As a Canadian native from Ontario, Skinner began his NHL career by being the 7th pick of Carolina Hurricanes in the NHL Entry Draft 2010. He was part of the 2006 Stanley Cup winning team, playing as a centre and standing tall with a total 18 goals,
22 assists and 40 points.
All-Star Skinner
In the NHL All-Star 2011 game, Jeff had the opportunity to be selected and became the youngest All-Star player ever, breaking Steve Yzerman’s record by 8 days.
Being picked in the 11th round of the All-Star Fantasy Players Draft by Team Staal, he was able to pick up an assist in front of his home crowd in Carolina at the RBC Centre.
He was roared on by the crowd throughout despite losing the game. He will always remember how he became an All-Star at the start of his career.
Previous rookies of the month have all been playing for a couple of years before being nominated, such as Michal Neuvirth (October) from Czech Republic currently in his third season with Washington Capitals and Logan Couture (December), the Canadian centre,
playing for San Jose Sharks in his second season.
Competition for Rookie of the Month
Hurricanes’ centre, Jeff Skinner, had a great run in the month of January as he had nine goals, 5 assists and earned a total of 14 points.
Earning half on his goals in one month alone is impressive and having an 8-4-2 record at a time when Carolina faces such tough competition from the big boys of the league.
Highlighting his month was Hurricanes’ win against Tampa Bay Lightning, the second highest ranking team of the Eastern Conference, in a 6-4 enticing match.
It wasn’t easy for Skinner, as he was up against a group of talented players for the award, such as Brad Marchand, the forward for Boston Bruins who had a record of 7-4-11 in the past 13 games, Tyler Ennis (3-7-10 12 games), forward for Buffalo Sabres, New
York Rangers’ forward, Mats Zuccarello, having a 3-7-10 in the past 14 games, and Philly Flyers’ goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky (6-0-0 for six games).
Skinner has had a blast of a start but needs to continue improving and developing his game intelligence in order to keep on climbing the ladder of NHL success.
Talent and ability are not something which Jeff lacks, he just needs to make himself more competitive if he wishes to face his rivals and emerge as a superstar player in a rookie’s disguise.
His team might not have made it to the 2011 National Hockey League play-offs, but his commitment and dedication brought them much closer than expected.
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