NHL Youngest Rookie of the Month is 18-year-old Jeff Skinner of Carolina Hurricanes
Jeff Skinner, the youngest player in the NHL has been named the rookie of the month for January 2011. The eighteen-year-old has certainly made some big achievements in his short career, only a little shy of 2 years.
First of all he is living what most Canadians at his age consider only to be their dreams and has gained so much in this period which will always be valuable for him later on in his career as a professional hockey player.
Growing up in a loving family certainly makes a difference.
His parents, Andrew and Elizabeth Skinner, have always supported him and loved him the same as they loved all their 6 children.
As hockey has always been his passion, his parents never doubted him for one moment. Playing for his school and eventually earning distinctions led him to adopt a profession he loves.
Skinner started his career with the Hurricanes
A native of Ontario, Canada, Jeff began his NHL career by being the 7th pick of the Carolina Hurricanes in the NHL Entry Draft 2010.
Since then he hasn’t looked back a single time. He was part of the 2006 Stanley Cup winning team, playing as a centre. Standing tall himself, Skinner has a total 18 goals, 22 assists and 40 points for Carolina in the Eastern Conference.
All-Star Skinner
In the NHL All-Star 2011 game, Jeff had the opportunity to be selected to become the youngest All-Star player ever breaking the record set by Steve Yzerman by 8 days in age.
Being picked in the 11th round of the All-Star Fantasy Players Draft by Team Staal in which 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. Even though they lost that game, it was something that he will always remember as 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’s, from the Czech Republic currently in his third season with Washington Capitals and Logan Couture, December’s, the Canadian
centre 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, assisted 5 times 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, is amazing.
Highlighting his month was the win against Tampa Bay Lightning, the second highest ranking team of the Eastern Conference, in a 6-4 fierce 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 in past 12 games, forward of 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 in 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 up 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.
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