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Top 100 Oilers: No. 80 — Steve Staios
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Photo credit: Jacob Lazare
Zach Laing
Sep 13, 2025, 08:00 EDTUpdated: Sep 13, 2025, 12:44 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 Staios comes in at No. 81 on our updated 2025 list. He was ranked No. 73 on Brownlee’s original list.
Steady Steve.
He got the nickname for reason, and it’s because he was your ideal stay-at-home defenceman. Just look at his numbers below. Never much offence, but he was an honest, tough-as-nails player who played 1,001 games.

Notable

Staios’ largest mark in the NHL was made in Edmonton after signing with the team as a free agent on July 12th, 2001, two weeks before he turned 28. He’d span eight years in Edmonton, and while there wasn’t much scoring from him early nor late in his career, he had a strong offensive run between 2002-03 and 2005-06, racking up 19 goals and 82 points in 240 games.
Of his total numbers over his career, the goals accounted for 33.9 percent, assists 38.4 percent and points 37.3 percent in 24 percent of his career games. He played in all 24 playoff games in 2005-06, scoring a goal and six points and breaking even in plus/minus. Steady as could be.

The Story

Staios was drafted by the Blues in the second round of the 1991 draft, but he would toil with their IHL and AHL affiliates before getting traded to Boston in 1995-96. He landed with the Vancouver Canucks the following year on waivers, before a two year stint in Atlanta took him to free agency.
His tenure in Edmonton ended with a rare trade with the Calgary Flames, sending him south for a third round pick in 2011 and defenceman Aaron Johnson, who lasted just 19 games in Edmonton. It was a solid return for the 36 year old, who would spend his final season in the NHL in 2011-12 at 38 years old with the New York Islanders.
Staios has enjoyed a successful career in hockey post-retirement, getting his start with the Toronto Maple Leafs in a consultant role, later spending part of 2014-15 as an assistant coach with the team. He landed with the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs for seven years, winning two league championships as president and general manager.
He joined the Oilers front office as a special assistant to general manager Ken Holland in 2022-23, but left the following year to become the Ottawa Senators’ president of hockey operations and general manager.

What Brownlee said

Growing up in Hamilton, Staios and his family of five lived in a tiny apartment above the variety store his father, Paul, operated. He always marveled at the hours his parents worked, relating it to how lucky he felt to play in the NHL and make the money he did. He often talked about how those days shaped him as a young man.
It was no big surprise, then, when Staios left a position in player development with the Toronto Maple Leafs – he also served as an assistant coach — last July to return to Hamilton to become the president of the OHL Bulldogs, who were relocating from Belleville.

The Last 10

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on X at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.

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