Edmonton’s Jeff Skinner finally makes playoff debut after 15 NHL seasons

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Edmonton Oilers forward Jeff Skinner has finally made his Stanley Cup playoff debut after 15 seasons and a league-record 1,078 regular-season games.

Skinner was in Edmonton’s lineup for Game 1 of its first-round series against the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night, ending the longest wait for a post-season debut in NHL history.

Skinner, who turns 33 next month, has been an NHL regular since he was 18. He has racked up six 30-goal seasons and 699 total points while scoring 373 goals in a standout career.

But Skinner spent his first eight seasons of that career with Carolina, which missed nine consecutive post-seasons during the 2010s, and the next six with the woebegone Buffalo Sabres, whose current 14-season playoff drought is the league’s longest.