NAHL
Mike Zuke played just 48 games in the North American Hockey
League in 1976-77, the NAHL’s final season. Yet, Zuke led the Mohawk Valley
Comets with 42 goals while appearing in 65% of the team’s 74 regular season
games. The goal total placed him tied for eighth in the NAHL with Henry Taylor
of the Johnstown Jets.
1976-77 was Zuke’s first year of pro hockey after four years
with Michigan Tech. Mike remains Michigan Tech’s all-time leader in goals,
assists and points. He finished the 1976-77 season with 42 goals and 29 assists
for 71 points. He also appeared in fifteen games in the World Hockey
Association with the Indianapolis Racers.
The 1976-77 Comets went through a pair of player / coach’s
in Bob Woytowich and Bill
Horton. The team reached the post season but fell in the first round to the
Binghamton Dusters. Zuke didn’t play in the playoffs. The Indianapolis Racers
lost in the second round of the WHA playoffs but Mike didn’t appear in any of
those games, either.
Pro Hockey
Mike was drafted into the two major hockey leagues in 1974.
At the NHL Amateur Draft, the St. Louis Blues took him in the fifth round, 79th
overall. In the WHA Amateur Draft, it was the Indianapolis Racers selecting him
in the fourth round, 47th overall. He would go on to play for both
teams.
In the WHA, Zuke appeared in 86 regular season games. There
was his fifteen games with the Racers in his rookie season while the rest of
WHA games were played the following year with the Edmonton Oilers.
Mike moved to the National Hockey League for the 1978-79
season, escaping the WHA a year before the rebel league’s demise. He played 455
regular season games in the NHL between 1978-79 and 1985-86 with the St. Louis
Blues and Hartford Whalers.
After several years behind the bench as assistant coach of
his hometown Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League in the
1990’s, Zuke has settled in St. Louis, Missouri. He currently owns Mike
Zuke Enterprises, a company that specializes in sports apparel.
