This prairie native was a graduate of the New Westminster Bruins and was drafted in 1979 by the Boston Bruins for whom he played parts of three NHL seasons before a 1984 trading deadline deal sent him to the Oilers. He was a regular with Edmonton in 1984-85 when Oilers won their second Stanley Cup. From there, he played three seasons for the New York Rangers before winding up his 10-season NHL career with three campaigns with the Canucks. All told, Mel played in 432 NHL games, scoring 11-63-74 with 686 penalty minutes. Very active with the Canucks Alumni team, Melnyk works as a full service stock broker in downtown Vancouver.