After he had only played in one game with the Pembroke Lumber Kings of the Upper Ottawa Valley Hockey League, Ronan was suspended for the remainder of the 1906-07 hockey season, after playing under an assumed name (Johnston).

In 1907-08, Ronan joined the Ottawa City Hockey League's Ottawa Primrose before joining the Pittsburgh Bankers of the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League the following year. After starting the year in Pittsburgh, Skene Ronan signed with the Toronto Professionals of the Ontario Professional Hockey League after jumping contract with Pittsburgh.

After eight games with Pittsburgh and seven games with Toronto, Ronan jumped contract with the Professional and was signed by Haileybury of the Temiskaming Professional Hockey League. In 1909-10, Ronan returned to Haileybury now of the National Hockey Association before being joining the NHA's Renfrew Creamery Kings the following year.

The NHA's Ottawa Senators claimed Skene Ronan in a November Dispersal Draft from Renfrew where he spent the next three seasons scoring 71 goals in 51 games before being traded to the NHA's Toronto Shamrocks in 1914. The 1915-16 season saw Ronan split his season with the NHA's Toronto Blueshirsts and the NHA's Montreal Canadiens before returning to the OCHL and to the Ottawa Munitions where he spent the next two seasons as a player/coach.

Ronan made his NHL debut during the 1918-19 season after being traded by Montreal to the NHL 's Ottawa Senators in December 1918. In eleven games with Ottawa, Ronan was held off the score sheet and was released by the club and re-signed a few weeks later.

Throughout his hockey career, Skene Ronan played in eleven NHL games recording zero points while accumulating six minutes in penalties.