A harmless post-game hug turned into a full-blown trade rumor for the Edmonton Oilers, and Stuart Skinner couldn't help but laugh about how quickly things spiraled.

After Calvin Pickard secured a win over the Seattle Kraken — despite giving up a goal with 4.5 seconds left — Skinner skated over and gave his partner a long, six-second embrace. Fans immediately wondered if it was a “goodbye” hug, sparking internet speculation that the Oilers were preparing to move Pickard and possibly bring in Tristan Jarry.

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Skinner had no idea any of that was happening. In fact, when he was posed the question by TSN's Ryan Rishaug -- phrased in a way that most hugs are about " we talking two, three steamboats?: What would a normal hug be?" Skinner responded, "What are we talking about here?" 

Rishaug later explained that the extra long hug led to a ton of online chatter, Skinner said, "Oh, the hugs. Oh my gosh, ya." I gave him an embrace because he was talking about our embrace the game before." 

He went on to say that he's not on social media, so he didn’t even know about the trade talks.  Skinner said Tuesday that Pickard was the one who brought it to his attention. After they both hear the rumors, they ran with it. "We were just having some fun.”

After the scrum ended and off camera, Skinner said he didn't get the steamboat reference, which explained his confusion with the question. 

At the end of the day, Skinner explained that the original hug came from a place of empathy, not roster drama. “Seeing the stat line… it was going really well until the last two seconds. I felt really bad for him.”

As for the hugs before that game and any hugs since, they give each other hugs because "we just love each other, too.” If they linger from here on in, don't be shocked if it's the two netminders having fun with the narrative that's out there. 

Skinner admitted that reactions like the one that happened after a simple gesture between goalies are simply part of life in a hockey-mad market like Edmonton. “Yeah, for sure. You’re right — I’m not on social media at all. That’s why Cal had to bring it up to me. But no, we’re just having fun. It’s kind of part of the business that we’re all in.”

Despite the chatter and any trade speculation that continues to follow throughout the season, Skinner isn't paying attention to the noise. He's not in control over what happens with the roster, beyond just playing as well as he can. Those two are close and they are there to support each other. If the goaltending situation in Edmonton changes, that's out of their hands.

“You give him that hug because it’s a big win and you got two points and that’s truly what matters… "

When asked how the two netminders have handled the rumors and gone about their business, head coach Kris Knoblauch responded, "Yeah, yeah they showed a lot of maturity." He added, they've put aside all the noise. "You know, there's been a lot of noise, and a lot of it's been unfair."

"You look at the amount of games they've won and how well they played at crucial times of the year. Have they been outstanding every single game? No. But I think their body work has been very solid and early in the year, I think they've been disappointed, but as a team we haven't helped them out very much." He noted, "I think the stats are nice things to look at, analytics ar,e but often they mislead you, so if you're just looking a, yout would say they're underperforming, but if you look at the quality of opportunities that they're facing every single night, especially early in the year, you would see that they didn't have much opportunity to play well."

For now, Huggate is officially settled.

Skinner Gets the Start vs the Sabres

Stuart Skinner will get the start against the Buffalo Sabres Tuesday night. The Sabres are leaking goals against and coming off a game against the Calgary in a back-to-back situation. It's much the same scenario as Edmonton's game against Winnipeg and the Oilers -- who have exploded for goals -- will want to jump on Buffalo early. 

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