Jeff Skinner's North American career appears to be over, at least for now. The 2010 seventh overall pick and former Calder Trophy winner has agreed to a one-year contract with EHC Biel-Bienne of Switzerland's National League, ending a long free-agent stretch that started when the San Jose Sharks cut him loose back in February.
Jeff Skinner signs one-year contract with Swiss club EHC Biel-Bienne https://t.co/gv1a8PUXC4
It's a wild landing spot for a guy who was a $72 million man not that long ago. Skinner signed an 8-year, $72 million deal with the Buffalo Sabres back in 2019, and across 5 NHL contracts he's pulled in over $100 million in career earnings. He's a 2-time All-Star with 379 goals and 712 points in 1,110 career games across stops in Carolina, Buffalo, Edmonton and San Jose.
The end in San Jose was ugly. Skinner signed a 1-year, $3 million deal with the Sharks last summer, but the fit never worked — he managed just 6 goals and 13 points in 32 games before getting buried in the press box as San Jose leaned on younger additions like Michael Misa and Kiefer Sherwood. The Sharks mutually terminated the deal and put him on unconditional waivers on February 16, and he's been a free agent ever since.
At 34 years old, going unsigned for 6 months into the offseason is a pretty clear signal about where the market saw him. Rather than take a two-way deal or wait out a training camp tryout, Skinner opted for a fresh start in the Swiss League, where NHL vets in the back half of their careers can still be featured players and cash real money without the grind of an 82-game North American slate.
It's the kind of move that reads as a soft retirement from the NHL rather than an actual retirement — plenty of former NHLers have used Switzerland as a late-career landing spot, and some have even played their way back. But for now, a former Calder winner and 8-figure earner is heading to Biel, and the 2026-27 season will be the first in 16 years that Jeff Skinner isn't on an NHL roster.