Michael Joseph Pelyk (born September 29, 1947) is a Canadian former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player who played 441 games in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

(NHL) and 150 games in the

World Hockey Association The World Hockey Association () was a professional ice hockey major league that operated in North America from 1972–73 WHA season, 1972 to 1978–79 WHA season, 1979. It was the first major league to compete with the National Hockey League (N ...

(WHA) between 1967 and 1978. He played with the

Toronto Maple Leafs The Toronto Maple Leafs (officially the Toronto Maple Leaf Hockey Club and often referred to as the Leafs) are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto. The Maple Leafs compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the A ...

Vancouver Blazers The Vancouver Blazers were a professional ice hockey team that played in the World Hockey Association from 1973 to 1975. The Blazers played at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, sharing the facility with the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hocke ...

, and

Cincinnati Stingers The Cincinnati Stingers were an ice hockey team based in Cincinnati that played in the World Hockey Association from 1975 to 1979 and in the Central Hockey League during the 1979–80 season. Their home arena was Riverfront Coliseum. They are th ...

Playing career

Pelyk attended Michael Power/St. Joseph High School in

Etobicoke Etobicoke (, ) is an administrative district and former city within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comprising the city's west end, Etobicoke is bordered on the south by Lake Ontario, on the east by the Humber River (Ontario), Humber River, on the ...

, Ontario. Although a gifted skater, Pelyk struggled with inconsistency early in his NHL career with the

. In the 1973–74 season he seemed to be finally reaching his potential, leading Leaf defencemen with 12 goals, when he was lured away from the Leafs with a million-dollar contact to the

of the WHA. However, he was never quite able to return to the potential shown in the 1973–74 season either in his two years in the WHA, or with his return to the NHL with the Maple Leafs in 1976. After two years alternating between the NHL and CHL he retired in 1978. Pelyk was

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

of the WHA Cincinnati Stingers for the 1975–76 season.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pelyk, Mike 1947 births Living people Canadian ice hockey defencemen Cincinnati Stingers players Dallas Black Hawks players Ice hockey people from Etobicoke Toronto Maple Leafs draft picks Toronto Maple Leafs players Toronto Marlboros players Tulsa Oilers (1964–1984) players Vancouver Blazers players 20th-century Canadian sportsmen