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Top 100 Oilers: No. 24 — Steve Smith

Photo credit: Jacob Lazare

By Zach Laing

Jul 14, 2026, 14:00 EDTUpdated: Jul 14, 2026, 16:25 EDT

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Oilersnation is reviving the Top 100 Edmonton Oilers of All Time list, a project originally created by the late Robin Brownlee in 2015. Steve Smith comes in at No. 24 on our updated 2025 list. He was ranked No. 16 on Brownlee’s original list.

Above all else, Steve Smith is best known for the one thing nobody wants to be known for: scoring on your own goal.

A little over five minutes into Game 7 of the 1986 Smythe Division, Calgary Flames forward Perry Berezan dumped the puck into the Oilers zone with the score tied at two. Smith, in his rookie season and on his 23rd birthday, corralled the puck behind his net, looking to fire a stretch pass up the ice, only for it to bounce off Grant Fuhr’s skate and right into the Oilers net.

The Oilers couldn’t tie it up, and after winning back-to-back Stanley Cups, the quest for a three-peat was stalled.

Notable

Fans blamed Smith to the nth degree for the own goal, but Wayne Gretzky never bought that narrative, later writing in his autobiography that it was a “total cop-out.” After the clock ticked down in Game 7 of the 1987 Stanley Cup final, and the Oilers reclaimed Lord Stanley’s mug on home ice, Gretzky received the trophy from president John Ziegler. The Oilers captain was quick to hoist it, but equally quick to pass it on to the next man: Steve Smith himself.

With the monkey off his back, Smith, who was drafted by the team in the sixth round of the 1981 draft, would go on to make the 1987-88 season, his third in the league, his most memorable, setting then career highs in goals, assists, points and penalty minutes, with 12, 43, 55, and 286, respectively.

Smith made a name for himself beyond the early-career faux pas, never letting it define the rest of his career.

The Story

Smith became much more than just the guy who scored on himself, as he shed his tough, shutdown moniker and found an offensive side to his game. He became a go-to-guy for Glen Sather, and would lead Oilers defencemen in scoring in three of the first four seasons in the post-Paul Coffey era.

He remained in Edmonton until an October 1991 trade that returned Dave Manson, and a third-round pick later used to select Kirk Maltby. After seven years in Edmonton, he would spend six in Chicago, where his strong offensive game continued for two years. In 1998, he would sign as a free agent with the Calgary Flames, spending three years down the highway from where he cut his NHL chops, retiring after playing just 13 games in the 2000-01 season.

Newspapers.com/Edmonton Journal

A photo collage from the June 1, 1987 edition of the Edmonton Journal includes a photo of Steve Smith drinking from the Stanley Cup.

What Brownlee said

Steve Smith was a helluva defenseman with the Edmonton Oilers during a tenure that would see him sip from the Stanley Cup three times with the Boys on the Bus. Of that, there is no debate. What Smith has always been remembered for, though, is the moment he banked a clearing attempt off the skate of goaltender Grant Fuhr and into his own net in Game 7 of the 1986 Smythe Division final against the hated Calgary Flames.
In the aftermath of the stunning faux pas that put the Flames up 3-2 for good with 14:46 to play in the third period and ended a bid for Edmonton’s third straight Stanley Cup, there was Smith sprawled face down on the ice as a stunned crowd looked on. Later, tears in the dressing room. The big rookie was inconsolable. While it is the one single moment Smith, to this day, is best known for, it didn’t define him. Not nearly.

The Last 10

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s managing editor and The Nation Network’s news director. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.

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