Craig Coxe: This is what the NHL fighter is doing now

Craig Coxe might not ring a bell for many current NHL fans. But for those who have been following hockey for some time, he’s a true cult figure—a tough guy who never backed down from a fight during his eight years in the NHL. But what is he up to today?

Craig Coxe was born in Chula Vista, a town in southern California, in 1964. At the time, hockey wasn’t a big deal in California. In fact, many of his classmates didn’t even know what the sport was. But Coxe’s father, a Canadian from Ontario, brought his love of hockey with him when he moved to California. Still, Coxe’s own passion for the game didn’t truly take off until he was 17, when he moved to Alberta to play junior hockey.

Fought Bob Probert and Joey Kocur

Craig Coxe was drafted in the fourth round of the 1982 NHL Draft by the Detroit Red Wings, but he never played for them. After two seasons in the OHL, he signed with the Vancouver Canucks. That’s when his career really took off, and he quickly became one of the most feared enforcers in the league. One night, he even fought both Bob Probert and Joey Kocur in the same game. However, as time went on, he began to feel the toll of that role.
“In the beginning, fighting wasn’t difficult because I was young and I just wanted to do it. But after doing it for four or five years, it gets hard. You start to get a little older, you start to get a little more mature, and that’s when I was trying to become more of a hockey player,” Coxe told Cali Sport News in 2020.
Unfortunately for Coxe, his coaches didn’t see it that way.
“The coaches I had kept putting me in the same position, and it was tough. There were a lot of guys like Dave Brown and Stu Grimson who didn’t put up a whole lot of points on the board, but they knew their job was to fight—and they did it for a lot of years. So, as a guy who was a fighter, I tip my hat to those guys,” Coxe said.

Craig Coxe in 2025

Craig Coxe did get the chance to play for a California-based NHL team, lacing up for ten games during the San Jose Sharks’ inaugural season before retiring from the league. During his eight years in the NHL, he tallied 45 points and racked up 713 penalty minutes in 235 games, playing for Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames, St. Louis Blues and San Jose Sharks.
Now 61 years old, Coxe is still very much involved in hockey. He lives in Cheboygan, Michigan, where he manages a local rink and coaches the high school hockey team. Looking back on his career, Coxe has only fond memories.
“I got to play, between the NHL and the minors, 17 years of professional hockey. And actually, at my age, as beat up as my body is, I’m still able to coach. So, to be able to be around the rink and go out on the ice with the little kids—the four- and five-year-olds who are just learning—it’s a lot of fun to see those smiles on their faces,” Craig Coxe says.

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