Edmonton Oilers goalie Skinner believes he can crack Canada's Olympic team
Edmonton Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner is tuning out the haters ahead of the new hockey season.
Skinner was among a large group of players on the ice at Rogers Place on Thursday morning as day three of the captain’s skates got underway. The Edmonton native will be under intense scrutiny after a rollercoaster season last year that saw him lose the net for a significant portion of the playoffs.
Coming into the 2025-26 season, the goal will be to finally win a Stanley Cup, but Skinner made sure to tell reporters after the skate that he is also thinking about the upcoming Olympics in Italy.
“I want to go to the Olympics, I want to be a goalie for Team Canada,” Skinner said. “I want to set the bar high [this season].”
"For my goals this year, of course I wanna set the bar high. I wanna be the goalie for Team Canada at the Olympics, I wanna be able to get back to the Stanley Cup & finish the job."
Stuart Skinner on his objectives with the #Oilers this season.@Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/P1c5bssjtz
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) September 4, 2025
Skinner was left off the invite list for last month’s Team Canada orientation camp. Only three goaltenders were invited to that camp, with Jordan Binnington, Adin Hill, and Samuel Montembeau making the cut. However, Canada GM Doug Armstrong said that other goalies, like Skinner, could be able to play their way onto the roster.
The 26-year-old Skinner wasn’t hurt by the non-invite and is taking it as motivation to put his best foot forward when the season starts in October.
“That’s what we were all told,” Skinner said. “I think in that situation, it really depends on how the season goes for everybody. For me, I just want to play really good hockey, to be in here, really set myself to have a really good chance to [make the Canada roster].”
It was another tough summer for the Oilers’ goaltender, having to deal with the heartbreak of another Stanley Cup Final defeat. He told reporters that he worked on a lot of stuff both on and off the ice to prepare for the grind of another 82-game schedule.
That included both on-ice and off-ice activities.
“I’d have to go through my notes to go through all [the stuff I worked on],” Skinner said with a smirk. “Getting in better shape, getting my core turned on a little bit more, those were the type of things I worked on.
“Being able to mentally clear was the biggest thing for me as the summer went on. Losing the Cup two years in a row is definitely challenging. Being able to clear my mind and get to a really good, happy, quiet spot has been big.”
It’ll be a bit different for Skinner from a coaching perspective as well. With the Oilers bringing in Peter Aubry to replace longtime goalie coach Dustin Schwartz, the Edmonton native says there will be an adjustment, but that things have gotten off to a good start.
“I’ve been coached by Schwartzy for the past eight years,” Skinner said. “It’s been a pretty easy transition. Just going to Pete’s philosophies, it’s just getting in the way of the puck.
“He’s brought some really good points for me to think about and some stuff that we’ve been working on. That’s the name of the game, just continue to work on certain things that you know you can get better at.”
It won’t be an easy task for Skinner to play his way onto Canada’s Olympic radar, but if he can find a way to find some consistency in his game early on, then it could wind up being a real possibility.