Doug Houda was selected in the second round, 28th overall by the Detroit Red Wings in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft. He got his first taste of major junior hockey at the age of 15, playing three games with the Calgary Wranglers of the WHL. At 16, he played a full 71-game season, scoring 28 points. In his final full season with the Wranglers in 1984-85, he scored 74 points in 65 games while picking up 182 minutes in penalties. He did play 51 games in the WHL the following year with Calgary and Medicine Hat while also suiting up for his first pro game as a member of the IHL's Kalamazoo Wings, where he played in seven playoff games.
In 1985-86, he played in his first six NHL games with the Detroit Red Wings. He spent the entire following year in the minors before getting his second crack at the big leagues, playing in eleven more games for Detroit. But it was 1988-89, when he appeared in 57 games, that Houda really got the opportunity to get comfortable in the NHL, and he responded by playing solid defensive hockey while also chipping in with 13 points.
After another year-and-half of bouncing up and down between the NHL and the minors, Houda was sent to the Hartford Whalers where he stayed for a little over two years before moving on to the Los Angeles Kings for 54 games in 1993-94.
Houda joined the Buffalo Sabres in the shortened 1994-95 season and stayed with the club for two years before moving on to the New York Islanders. He also had a short-lived stint in Anaheim before having a second go-round with the Red Wings and the Sabres.
