Detroit Red Wings
Former Red Wings Defenseman Miszuk Dead at 84
Played in WHA with Michigan Stags
Former Detroit Red Wings defenseman John Miszuk was a rarity in that he could boast of having played for both of the Motor City’s major professional hockey franchises.
Miszuk, who died this week at the age of 84, broke into the NHL with the Red Wings during the 1963-64 season. He accumulated a pair of assists in 42 regular-season games. Miszuk also saw action in three playoff games that spring – Games 1, 3, and 5 of Detroit’s Stanley Cup semifinal series against the Chicago Blackhawks.
John Stanley Miszuk, the NHL and WHA defenceman born on September 29, 1940, in Nalibaki (then part of Poland, now Belarus), passed peacefully with family at his side on Sunday, July 27, 2025.
Former NHL hockey player John Miszuk returned to his birthplace in Naliboki,… pic.twitter.com/kpUzt6syvf
— NHL Alumni (@NHLAlumni) July 30, 2025
That spring, he’d move to the Blackhawks. Detroit dealt Miszuk, Ian Cushenan, and Art Stratton to Chicago for Ron Murphy and Aut Erickson.
An original Philadelphia Flyers player in the 1967-68 season, Miszuk appeared in all 74 regular-season and seven playoff games for the team that campaign. He’d also see NHL duty with the Minnesota North Stars.
Played For Red Wings And Stags
In 1974, Miszuk signed with the WHA’s Michigan Stags. Playing out of Detroit’s Cobo Arena, the Stags were an ill-fated outfit. At midseason, the club relocated to Baltimore.
Bobby Hull of the #Blackhawks and John Miszuk of the #LGRW square off in a 1964 scrap at Chicago Stadium. pic.twitter.com/E0Iyz6CeIg
— The Hockey Samurai 侍 (@hockey_samurai) September 29, 2021
“That was almost ridiculous,” Miszuk recalled of the Stags’ experience in a 1975 interview with the Calgary Herald. “Nobody ever knew where or when the checks were coming from.
“It was so unsettled that there was one whole week that went by when we didn’t even practice.”
Interred In A German WWII Labor Camp
Born in Naliboki, Poland – today part of Belarus – Miszuk’s family was interred in a prison labor camp after Germany invaded Poland to start World War II.
“They weren’t concentration camps,” Miszuk told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I don’t know what you’d call them. Relocation camps, I suppose.
“I don’t remember an awful lot. I remember running through the shelters when the bombs would fall. And I remember the sirens.
“It was awful.”
After the war, Miszuk’s family moved to Canada in 1949 when he was nine. He learned the English language and how to play hockey.
“You played what the rest of the kids did,” he recalled.
