— Jeff Skinner is having an attention-grabbing rookie season for the Carolina Hurricanes. Through 48 games, he has scored 17 goals. He leads all NHL rookies in points (39) and assists (22) and will appear in the All-Star Weekend SuperSkills Competition Saturday in Raleigh.

It's heady stuff for a young man still four months shy of his 19th birthday.

But Skinner is no stranger to the spotlight. He parlayed his skating skills into a movie role when he was just 9 years old.

"My parents took me to the rink and told me I had some sort of tryout," Skinner recalled. "I had no idea what it was for. I went to the rink and waited in line and just did some skating. They judged if you're a good skater."

Skinner was good enough to land the role -- skating in the background in a scene from the Robin Williams film "Death to Smoochy."

In the movie, Williams plays a children's television host fired from his position who plots against his replacement, played by Edward Norton in a purple rhino costume. Skinner was among the extras who skate with Smoochy. He was in costume, but he was seen on screen.

Skinner missed a month of school during filming and was tutored on the set. The lessons he took away went beyond the books.

"The biggest thing for me was I realized movies were fake," he said. "I was at that stage where everything was real, and horror movies really scared me."

Aside from that, Skinner said, he was too young to really register his first taste of stardom. Now, at 18, he will skate into the NHL spotlight with 11 other first-year players and 42 All-Stars.

Upon his selection, Skinner said, "It'll be my first All-Star appearance, and that's one thing, and then to have it at your home building is going to be a special experience, and I'm really looking forward to it."