Michael David Peluso (born November 8, 1965), is an American former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

player. Peluso was known primarily as an

enforcer Enforcer or enforcers may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Comics * Enforcer (comics), a Marvel Comics character * Enforcers (comics), a Marvel Comics team * New Enforcers, another Marvel Comics team Film and television * ''The Enforcer ...

throughout his

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL) career. Peluso played in the NHL from 1990 until 1998.

Playing career

Mike Peluso, known as a slick defenseman when drafted in 1985 by the New Jersey Devils, played for the

University of Alaska Anchorage The University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) is a public university in Anchorage, Alaska. UAA also administers four community campuses spread across Southcentral Alaska: Kenai Peninsula College, Kodiak College, Matanuska–Susitna College, and Pr ...

until 1989 rather than signing a professional contract with the NHL club.LegendsOfHockey.net: Mike Peluso Legends of Hockey profile
/ref> He signed as a free agent for the Chicago Blackhawks in 1989, and started his

career in 1990. Upon joining the Hawks, he was switched to forward and encouraged to fight in order to stay in the lineup. He fought

Basil McRae Basil Paul McRae (born January 5, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He is a part owner and alternate governor of the London Knights in the Ontario Hockey League and he is the director of player personnel for the Columbus Bl ...

of the

Minnesota North Stars The Minnesota North Stars were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 26 seasons, from 1967 to 1993. The North Stars played their home games at the Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, and the team's colors for ...

in his first NHL game and recorded 728 penalty minutes in his first two years in Chicago. With 408 of these coming in 63 games during the

1991–92 NHL season The 1991–92 NHL season was the 75th regular season of the National Hockey League. The league expanded to 22 teams with the addition of the expansion San Jose Sharks. For the first time, the Stanley Cup Finals extended into June, with the Pittsb ...

, Peluso became one of only three players in NHL history, and the most recent, to have accumulated 400 PIM or more in a single season. He spent parts of three years in Chicago before going to the new

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (french: Sénateurs d'Ottawa), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a membe ...

as the 21st pick in the

1992 NHL Expansion Draft The 1992 NHL Expansion Draft was an expansion draft held by the National Hockey League (NHL) to fill the rosters of the league's two expansion teams for the 1992–93 season, the Ottawa Senators and the Tampa Bay Lightning. The draft was held on ...

. During his only season in Ottawa, he set the club record for most penalty minutes in a single season (318), but was allowed to play a more offensive role, scoring 15 goals along with 10 assists. Nevertheless, on June 26, 1993, he was traded to the New Jersey Devils to complete an earlier transaction that sent

Craig Billington Craig Richard Billington (born September 11, 1966) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender. He played with several teams in a 15-year National Hockey League career, always known as "Biller," and serves as an assistant general manage ...

Troy Mallette Troy Matthew Mallette (born February 25, 1970) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. Mallette played in the National Hockey League for the New York Rangers, Edmonton Oilers, New Jersey Devils, Ottawa Senators, Boston Bruins and the ...

and Cosmo Dupaul, New Jersey's fourth round choice in 1993 Entry Draft, to Ottawa. As in Ottawa, Peluso's gritty, hard-nosed and intimidating style made him something of a cult hero in New Jersey. He was an integral part of the infamous "Crash Line" with

Randy McKay Hugh Randall McKay (born January 25, 1967) is a Canadian former professional hockey player. Playing the right wing position, he played in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1988 to 2003 with the Detroit Red Wings, New Jersey Devils, Dallas Star ...

and

Bobby Holík Bobby "The Geek" Holík (born January 1, 1971) is a Czech-American former professional ice hockey center who played 18 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL). Holík is the son of Jaroslav Holík, a Czechoslovak ice hockey world champion in ...

, a fourth-line combination whose energy and timely goal-scoring helped the Devils win their first of three Stanley Cups in

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

. Peluso then played for the

St. Louis Blues The St. Louis Blues are a professional ice hockey team based in St. Louis. The Blues compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The franchise was founded in 1967 as one of the ...

and

Calgary Flames The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary. The Flames compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference, and ...

. His career came to an end after suffering a spinal cord injury in 1997. He retired after the 1997–1998 season.

Career statistics

Bold indicates led league

Injury and lawsuit

On December 18, 1993, while playing for the New Jersey Devils in a game against the

Quebec Nordiques The Quebec Nordiques (french: Nordiques de Québec, pronounced in Quebec French, in Canadian English; translated "Quebec City Northmen" or "Northerners") were a professional ice hockey team based in Quebec City. The Nordiques played in the W ...

, Peluso was injured in a fight against

Tony Twist Anthony Rory Twist (born May 9, 1968) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played left wing in the NHL for the St. Louis Blues and Quebec Nordiques, and was a feared enforcer. Twist penned a foreword to the Ross Bernstein boo ...

. He was diagnosed with a concussion and sat out the next two games before returning to action five days later. Despite his continuing to play Peluso suffered a seizure and Dr. Marvin Ruderman allegedly wrote in January 1994 that Peluso:

"...should not sustain any further trauma to his head or he will suffer additional seizures and long-lasting brain damage...."

Because his role with the team was as an

Peluso was expected to both sustain and dole out punishment, or as his lawsuit states:

"...he was on the ice to fight."

Peluso remained on the roster and continued to play for the Devils for much of the next three years, including winning the 1995 Stanley Cup, but recalls overhearing then- trainer Teddy Schuch wonder as to Peluso's health only to be overruled by team doctor Barry Fisher. Peluso was later traded to the

during the

1996–97 NHL season The 1996–97 NHL season was the 80th regular season of the National Hockey League. The Stanley Cup winners were the Detroit Red Wings, who swept the Philadelphia Flyers in four games and won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 42 years. T ...

before finishing his professional career with the

the following year. In 2012, after years of suffering from

seizures An epileptic seizure, informally known as a seizure, is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with l ...

dementia Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...

memory loss Amnesia is a deficit in memory caused by brain damage or disease,Gazzaniga, M., Ivry, R., & Mangun, G. (2009) Cognitive Neuroscience: The biology of the mind. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. but it can also be caused temporarily by the use o ...

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...

and depression, Peluso filed for

workers' compensation Workers' compensation or workers' comp is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her emp ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, naming the last four teams he had played for in his NHL career (he suited up for the

prior to sustaining the concussion) as defendants. In the filing Peluso alleged that he spent tens of thousands of dollars on medical procedures and medication to alleviate his ailments. After several years of litigation Peluso was offered a $325,000 settlement but rejected the offer in August 2017. Several months passed with no resolution in the matter and in January 2019 Peluso sued the New Jersey Devils, former

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

Lou Lamoriello Louis P. Lamoriello (born October 21, 1942) is an American professional ice hockey executive who is the president of hockey operations and general manager for the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League (NHL). He is also the former ge ...

and doctors Marvin Ruderman, Len Jaffe and Barry Fisher. The suit alleges that Peluso's medical issues resulted from the injury he sustained in 1993, that team owners knew about the damage and hid the severity of the injury from him and the two teams that signed him subsequently.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Peluso, Mike 1965 births Living people Alaska Anchorage Seawolves men's ice hockey players American men's ice hockey left wingers American people of Italian descent Calgary Flames players Chicago Blackhawks players Edmonton Oilers scouts Ice hockey players from Minnesota Indianapolis Ice players New Jersey Devils draft picks New Jersey Devils players Ottawa Senators players People from Itasca County, Minnesota St. Louis Blues players Stanley Cup champions