Jeff Skinner - Carolina Hurricanes

In preparation for the upcoming season To occupy myself during the lockout, I am going to feature one player from every team in the NHL. Goalies are excluded because they’re interesting enough to garner a feature of their own so look forward to that as round 2.

#53 Jeff Skinner– Carolina Hurricanes – Center

The Past

Skinner is so young looking I bet he’ll get carded until he’s 50. Seriously, the kid looks like a baby. He’s from Canada and played for the Kitchener Rangers (with Gabe) before going 7^th overall in the 2010 draft.  He was the youngest player in the NHL during the 2010-2011 season and the youngest player ever in an All Star Game.

The Love

When I say Skinner it sounds like this.

Seriously every single time, regardless of where I am, if I’m talking about Jeff Skinner I turn into Chalmers.  It never, ever, ever gets old. His name is my favorite thing about the kid.

Oh yeah, and he’s a really good hockey player. He won the Calder and made the All Star team his rookie year. And I know I’m a little hung up on how young he looks but in the video below he looks pretty freakin grown up to me.

The Hate

Skinner has his share of penalty minutes, has taken some cheap shots and made questionable decisions. I think he’ll grow out of most of the recklessness but right now something about watching this baby faced kid play a little dirty makes me laugh.

Let’s Get Scrappy

According to hockeyfights.com Skinner got in a fight during a preseason game last year. Proof or it didn't happen, so if you have a video send it to me. It's not that I don’t think Skinner would fight but because he’s such a tiny baby boy I can’t imagine anybody would fight back.

Feed the Inner Fangirl/Fanboy 

Skinner was not only a hockey player but also a figure skater growing up. Something about the figure skating, along with looking like a 9 year old, has turned Skinner into the muse for many a fanfic. So Jeff Skinner, if you are reading this for the love of God skip to the next section. But for those of you who aren’t Jeff Skinner, check out AO3 for some, um interesting, fics starring Jeff. He’s almost always paired with Eric Staal, which should be really creepy but for some reason in the weird world of hockey FF it works.

Jeff also inspires absolutely hilarious photoshopping, like the pic below. There is a brilliant tumblr  -  http://ericstaalholdingthings.tumblr.com/ and this pic is from that site. It is most definitely my favorite tumblr in existence and I’m not even a Canes fan.

Let’s Mix in Some Swords

Jeff Skinner is most definitely Bran in Game of Thrones. Super young, baby faced kid who is strong, determined, and sometimes reckless.

Kisses!

~ Saucer