EHC Biel-Bienne signs Jeff Skinner to one-year contract

By Liam Tremblay — 15 August 2026 — 3 min read

Jeff Skinner, a veteran forward, has signed a one-year contract with EHC Biel-Bienne of the Swiss National League. The team announced the agreement on Friday. Skinner’s contract with the Swiss club is set to run through April of 2027.

Skinner, who is 34 years old, has played more than 1,000 games across 16 seasons in the NHL. His most recent NHL team was the San Jose Sharks, with whom he played last season. The Sharks placed Skinner on waivers on February 16, a move made to facilitate the termination of his contract.

During his time with San Jose, Skinner appeared in 32 games during the 2025-26 NHL regular season. He recorded six goals and 13 points. He also missed some time early in the season due to a lower-body injury. Skinner had signed a one-year, $3-million contract with the Sharks as a free agent last summer. He played sparingly during the first half of the season and eventually became a consistent healthy scratch before the mutual agreement to release him from his contract.

Skinner’s NHL Career Highlights

Skinner’s NHL career began after being selected by the Carolina Hurricanes as the No. 7 overall pick in the 2010 NHL Draft. He made an immediate impact, scoring 31 goals and 63 points in 82 games as an 18-year-old rookie. During that rookie season, he was named an NHL All-Star and won the Calder Memorial Trophy.

He spent his first eight NHL seasons with the Hurricanes, leading the team in goals three times. Skinner then moved on to play for the Buffalo Sabres after being traded in 2018. His tenure in Buffalo started strongly, with a career-high 40 goals in the 2018-19 season. This performance led the Sabres to sign him to an eight-year contract extension worth $9 million per season. He played five more seasons in Buffalo, experiencing fluctuations in his year-to-year production, before the club bought out his contract in 2024.

As an unrestricted free agent for the first time, Skinner signed a one-year contract with the Edmonton Oilers for the 2024-25 season. The Oilers had reached Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final and made another deep playoff run in 2025. Skinner made his playoff debut in 2025 with the Oilers, appearing in five out of 22 playoff games and collecting two points. The Oilers ultimately lost to the Florida Panthers in the Final for the second consecutive year. Skinner holds the record for the most games played before an NHL playoff appearance, with 1,078 games.

Career Statistics and Future Outlook

Throughout his NHL career, split between Carolina, Buffalo, Edmonton, and San Jose, Skinner amassed 379 goals and 712 points in 1,110 career games. He also recorded 491 penalty minutes. He has scored at least 30 goals in six different seasons. However, his offensive production saw a decline in recent years as he played for the Buffalo Sabres, Edmonton Oilers, and San Jose Sharks.

With EHC Biel-Bienne, Skinner will join a roster that includes several other NHL alumni. These include Gaetan Haas, Lias Andersson, Victor Soderstrom, and Harri Sateri. The move to the Swiss National League marks a new chapter for the forward.

If his NHL career has concluded, Skinner will finish with 379 goals and 333 assists over 1,110 career games.

Source: sportsnet.ca