Nelson Skalbania made his fortune in real estate business. Part of his business practices was 'flipping', which can be summarized as a practice of buying with the intent of selling as soon as possible in order to avoid costs associated with ownership.

Reflecting his real estate business strategy, Skalbania was briefly the owner of two WHA franchises, Edmonton Oilers and the Indianapolis Racers and two WHL franchises, the New Westminster Bruins and the Calgary Wranglers. He is also had the privilege to sign Wayne Gretzky to his first professional hockey contract (seven years, worth 1.75 million dollars) on June 10, 1978. After only eight games with the Racers, Skalbania traded Gretzky to the Oilers alongisde Eddie Mio and Peter Driscoll in exchange for 850 000 dollars. The Racers ceased operations in December 15, 1978.

He was also briefly one of the owners of Calgary Flames. On May 24, 1980, he bought the financially struggling Atlanta Flames from Tom Cousins for 16 million dollars, with the intent of relocating the franchise from Atlanta, Georgia, to Calgary Alberta. He financed the initial one million dollar deposit himself, while subsequent six million dollars was financed in exchange for promotional rights and nine million dollars was financed by Norman Green, Harley Hotchkiss, Norman Kwong, Byron Seaman, Doc Seaman and Ralph Scurfield in exchange for a 49 percent stake in the franchise. He sold a 20 percent stake to the co-owners on April 22, 1981 and the remaining 30 percent to his co-owners on October 7, 1981.

Family relations
Daughter: Rozanda Skalbania