Avalanche forward Jack Skille cherishing fresh opportunity

When the Avalanche extended free agent forward Jack Skille a professional tryout (PTO) contract, it was done so with very little fan fare. Drafted seventh overall in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, Skille was expected to be one of the forwards to lead the Blackhawks to the heights they’ve recently achieved. Instead, his career never took flight the way it was expected to and he posted modest career highs in 2010-11 with 49 games played, seven goals, and ten assists for 17 points before being traded to Florida and beginning his career as a journeyman.

The 28-year old Skille’s career since that point saw him play sporadically for the Panthers before moving on to Columbus and the New York Islanders, who he never played an official game for after he was waived and picked up by Columbus again. After another ho-hum effort for the Blue Jackets, Skille found his way to Colorado and his speed and skill combination was a perfect match for an organization that had been seeking to upgrade its depth for years.

Saddled with puck-stoppers like Patrick Bordeleau and Marc-Andre Cliche in recent seasons, the Avalanche saw in Skille the kind of upgrade to their lower lines they had desperately needed for so long. His ability to get up the ice quickly and play with skill at even strength and the penalty kill meant it was time for Bordeleau and Cliche to take their skills back to the American Hockey League where they were more appropriately suited to play.

He won a job with an excellent preseason and the club signed him to a player-friendly two-way contract, signaling the official beginning of what so far has been a harmonious partnership. For Skille’s part, he’s happy about being in Colorado, a place he said in a preseason interview with BSN that he had always wanted to play, and thinks the team is headed in the right direction despite early results.

“It’s a good group of guys,” Skille said. “I really like the guys in the room a lot. We’ve got a good character group. It’s unfortunate the start on paper that we’ve had but we feel like we’ve still played some pretty good hockey. We’ve had some lapses here and there that have cost us but I think this road trip for this group is huge. It’s time to to get away and play some simple road hockey.”

While Skille’s assertion the team has played pretty good hockey is debatable depending on what metrics you choose to view (unsurprisingly, the Avalanche are not a prolific team in the eyes of the advanced statistics), there’s certainly no doubting that he himself is off to a hot start. With two goals and three points in the season’s first seven games, Skille is on a 35-point pace that would represent a career-high by a wide margin. For his money, Skille’s hot start is the result of a combination of factors, including maturity, but isn’t getting caught up in it.

“I think it’s more of a confidence thing,” Skille said. “Maybe a little bit of a maturity thing, growing up over the years, playing pro and learning from my mistakes, learning what works. I’m not worried about myself. I’m more worried about this group and trying to help this team.”

As much as Skille may choose to down play his strong start, Head Coach Patrick Roy sent a signal at Monday’s practice that says he’s looking for Skille to continue building off his proficient early efforts by moving him from fourth line duty to playing the right wing alongside Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog. Such a move won’t change his game, however, as he promises to stay focused on the task at hand and helping Colorado’s most productive line continue to be so.

“It’s a great opportunity to play with some great players. In saying that, I can’t change my game and gotta keep playing the same way. Be physical, get in on some pucks and help those guys win battles and be smart defensively. I can just be good on the forecheck and help create loose pucks on the forecheck for them and have a net-front presence. If I play my style that should create some space for them.”

For the Avalanche, they have to hope this experiment of moving a fourth liner to a more prominent role experiences more success than it has with John Mitchell, who began the season centering the fourth line before moving up the lineup after four goals in the first four games. Since his promotion, Mitchell has been a shadow of the player who came out so hot to start the season and will be back to playing the fourth line tomorrow night when the Avalanche take on the Florida Panthers in Miami.

For Jack Skille, this could be the beginning of the career he always thought he would have.