Team

Betting

OilersNation has no direct affiliation to the Edmonton Oilers, Oilers Entertainment Group, NHL, or NHLPA

Top 100 Oilers: No. 20 — Craig Simpson

Photo credit: Jacob Lazare

By Zach Laing

Aug 10, 2026, 11:00 EDTUpdated: Aug 10, 2026, 11:35 EDT

Comments

Oilersnation is reviving the Top 100 Edmonton Oilers of All Time list, a project originally created by the late Robin Brownlee in 2015. Craig Simpson comes in at No. 20 on our updated 2025 list. He was ranked No. 18 on Brownlee’s original list.

Craig Simpson was the ultimate complementary winger. He could fill the net with ease, racking up 185 goals in 419 games in Edmonton, but was never shy to get to the dirty areas of the ice, planting himself there, letting those around him take advantage of the space he created.

To put it simply, Craig Simpson walked so Zach Hyman could run. They were cut from the same cloth.

Notable

Simpson was never a volume shooter, averaging just 1.65 per game in his entire career, never more than 2.21 in a single season, but he was an accurate shooter. To this day, his 23.66 shooting percentage is an NHL record that very well might stand the test of time.

He was nothing short of solid in the 1988 playoffs, scoring 13 goals and 19 points in 19 games. But when the big guys left ahead of the 1990 run, Simpson stepped into the spotlight. In Edmonton’s 22-game run to winning the franchise’s fourth Stanley Cup, he would lead all playoff players in both goals and points, racking up 16 and 31 in 22 games. In both Cup-winning runs, he had three game-winning goals.

The Story

Simpson was a contender for the first overall pick in the 1985 draft after spending two years at Michigan State University, where he scored 45 goals and 141 points in 85 games. While the Toronto Maple Leafs would draft Wendel Clark first overall, the Penguins were more than happy to scoop him up and pair him with a 20-year-old Mario Lemieux, but he would spend just two and a half years there.

Simpson arrived in Edmonton as a major shift happened from the Dynastic Oilers, picked up from the Penguins as one of four pieces brought back in the trade that ended Paul Coffey and Dave Hunter’s time in the City of Champions in Nov. 1987.

He had a good start to the year, scoring 13 goals and 26 points in 21 games, but took off from there, adding 43 goals and 64 points in 59 games to his season totals after settling in on a line with Mark Messier and Glenn Anderson. The 56-goal season was 21 more than he’d score in any other of his 10 short years in the league, but filled the net between 24 and 35 times in each of his five other seasons in Edmonton.

A bad back would make a long career short for Simpson, being forced to retire at 28-years-old. By the time he was traded to the Buffalo Sabres in Sept. 1993, he was a shell of the player he once was, and that was highlighted by just 46 games played across two seasons before the end came.

An Edmonton Journal article from Nov. 26. 1987, analyzes the blockbuster deal that sent Paul Coffey, Dave Hunter, and Wayne Van Dorp to Pittsburgh for Craig Simpson, and Curtis Joseph, Moe Mantha and Dave Hannan.

What Brownlee said

“Craig Simpson had the kind of hands, offensive instincts and willingness to go to the tough areas and stay there no matter what that could have landed him in the Hockey Hall of Fame. Unfortunately for the Edmonton Oilers, it was his back and not his gifted mitts that ultimately dictated how Simpson’s NHL career would unfold – one that was far too short, it turned out.
“Simpson scored 200 goals by the time he was 24, but he was just 28 when chronic back problems forced him to retire after just 634 career games, 419 of those in a stint with the Oilers in which he’d win two Stanley Cups. The hands and the heart were willing, but that back of Simpson’s had different ideas after years of taking a beating in the front of the net. That’s where the goals are and that’s where Simpson earned his keep.”

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.

SIGN UP NOW FOR THE NATION GOLF TOURNAMENT

The Nation Golf Tournament driven by GMC is back Friday, August 28, 2026! Which means it’s once again socially acceptable to skip work on a Friday for “networking.” Join us on Friday, August 28, 2026, at Mill Woods Golf Course for an 18-hole Texas scramble shotgun start, questionable swing decisions, and enough chirping to last the entire offseason. Grab your squad and sign up now at nationexperiences.ca before it sells out!