Edmonton Oilers News

Home

Quizzes

Newsletter

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Top 100 Oilers: No. 30 — Dave Lumley

Originally posted on Oilersnation | By Alicia LaBine | Last updated May 26, 2026 11:00 AM ET

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Oilersnation is reviving the Top 100 Edmonton Oilers of All Time list, a project originally created by the late Robin Brownlee in 2015. Dave Lumley comes in at No. 30 on our updated 2025 list. He was ranked No. 24 on Brownlee’s original list.

Dave Lumley was the kind of blue-collar player that every championship-winning team needs.

He was gritty, reliable, and capable of turning up on the score sheet when the team needed it. Lumley was never a big star on the dynasty Edmonton Oilers teams that dominated the 1980s, but he played an important role in capturing their first two Stanley Cups.

For the third story in a row, we will look back on a crucial depth player from the 1980s Oilers dynasty named Dave. After Dave Semenko and Dave Hunter, it’s now time to dive into Lumley’s impact on the golden era of Oilers hockey.

Via The Nation Network

Notable

In the 1981-82 season, Lumley scored in twelve consecutive games, the most in Oilers history, and tied for the four-longest in NHL history. He recorded 15 goals during this stretch that lasted from Nov. 21 to Dec. 16, 1981.

“It really felt like something magical,” he told Jason Strudwick and Meg Storms on the Pro Am Golf Show. “I was never a great goal scorer, but I could usually put the puck where I wanted.”

The streak ended against the Calgary Flames, but then the following game against the Minnesota North Stars, Lumley scored an impressive three goals and six points.

Besides his goal scoring abilities shining brightly from time to time, he mostly served as a role player for the team: a tough and pesky winger who enjoys stirring the pot and sending the other team to the penalty box. Him, Semenko, and Hunter are shining examples of a team’s need for these grinding players, who may not be as flashy as the Gretzkys or the Messiers, but they get the job done.

Lumley scored an empty net goal in the last game of the Stanley Cup Final in 1984, the goal extended the Oilers’ lead to 5-2, clinching the win.

When Glen Sather looked to the bench as the team was up 4-2 against the New York Islanders, he asked the team who wanted to go out against the empty net. Lumley said he looked at the coach, and Sather said, “Lummer, you’re up.”

When recalling the moment he scored to CBC, he said the arena erupted. Lumley looked over at Mark Messier, a St. Albert native, and he was sure that No. 11 was looking at his family in the rafters, with his hands in the air. This was the first time that the Oilers were Stanley Cup Champions.

Lumley said this specific championship was his favourite hockey memory. Both of his parents had passed away before he came to Edmonton, where his teammates had become his friends, and the city had become his family.

“To win that Stanley Cup, and then to take it and share it with the people who had become my friends and family…it couldn’t get any better,” he said.

Dave Lumley 1982-83 O-Pee-Chee.

The Story

Lumley was drafted in both the NHL and World Hockey Association (WHA) in 1974. In the NHL draft, he was selected by the Montreal Canadiens in the 12th round, 199th overall, and in the WHA he was taken by the Vancouver Blazers in the sixth round, 79th overall.

He elected to take the NHL route, where he ended up playing for the Canadiens AHL affiliate Nova Scotia Voyageurs for two seasons, and played three games at the NHL level for the Canadiens in 1978-79.

After that season, he was traded to the Edmonton Oilers for a second-round pick. He made the Oilers out of training camp and had an excellent rookie season. In 80 games, he recorded 20 goals and 58 points in his first of five seasons with the organization.

Before the 1984-85 season, Lumley was claimed by the Hartford Whalers in the NHL Waiver Draft, where he played 48 games, scoring eight goals and 28 points, before being placed on waivers and claimed back by the Oilers.

He went on to win the cup that season with the Oilers, and played two more seasons before retiring after one game in 1986-87. Lumley totalled 386 games with the team where he tallied 90 goals and 230 points.

Lumley retired in the 1986-87 season, after his playtime had dwindled immensely and he had gone from role player to bench-warmer.

“It’s evident the Oilers have replaced me with Danny Gare…frankly, practices are no longer enjoyable to me,” he told Ray Turchansky of the Edmonton Journal, at the time. “You’ve got to feel sorry for guys who are forced to leave, or need the money.”

Even though the end came sooner than he would have hoped, Lumley said he’d look fondly upon his career where he achieved two Stanley Cups, and had the privilege to play with the greatest of all time, Wayne Gretzky.

November 6, 1986, Edmonton Journal.

What Brownlee said

Lumley won a pair of Stanley Cups, in 1984 and 1985, during two stints with the Oilers, but it was that out-of-body experience in November and December of 1981 he gets asked about more than anything else when it comes to the career he carved out after taking the long road to the NHL by way of the University of New Hampshire. “Lummer, goals in 12 straight games, what the hell . . ?”

“Knowing that 17,000 people in the Coliseum were aware of the streak was something that really made me want to score,” Lumley said after stretching the streak to 11 games against the New York Islanders in Edmonton before making it an even dozen with his pair against Glen Resch in Denver. “I didn’t want to disappoint them. When they gave me standing ovation, I got goose bumps … it was a feeling that can’t be described.”