Mick Vukota

Marinko "Mick" Vukota (born September 14, 1966) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey right wing. He is perhaps best known for playing 10 seasons with the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League, where he played the role of an enforcer.

Playing career

Undrafted, Vukota signed with the New York Islanders, who were looking to add toughness to their roster, on March 2, 1987. Vukota worked his way up through their system and found himself skating on NHL ice by the end of the 1987–88 season, and scoring his first goal. He also registered 82 penalty minutes in 17 games. Over the next decade, Vukota forged a reputation as a tough scrapper and punishing forechecker who could occasionally score a goal. He was suspended several times by the league for on-ice incidents, and this added to his growing reputation. He went on to become the Islanders' career penalty minutes leader with 1,879, but his one-dimensional style resulted in a demotion to the Utah Grizzlies of the IHL in 1996–97. He split the 1997–98 season between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens in what was his last year in the NHL, surpassing 2,000 career penalty minutes, and then played two more seasons with the Grizzlies in the IHL before retiring.

Despite not being a major goal scorer, with only 17 career goals across 575 NHL matches, he did score a hat trick against the Washington Capitals, in a 5–3 Islanders win at the Capital Centre, on October 20, 1989.

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs Regular season Playoffs Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM 1983–84 Winnipeg Warriors WHL 3 1 1 2 10 — — — — — 1984–85 Kelowna Wings WHL 66 10 6 16 247 6 0 0 0 56 1985–86 Spokane Chiefs WHL 64 19 14 33 369 9 6 4 10 68 1986–87 Spokane Chiefs WHL 61 25 28 53 337 4 0 0 0 40 1987–88 Springfield Indians AHL 52 7 9 16 372 — — — — — 1987–88 New York Islanders NHL 17 1 0 1 82 2 0 0 0 23 1988–89 Springfield Indians AHL 3 1 0 1 33 — — — — — 1988–89 New York Islanders NHL 48 2 2 4 237 — — — — — 1989–90 New York Islanders NHL 76 4 8 12 290 1 0 0 0 17 1990–91 Capital District Islanders AHL 2 0 0 0 9 — — — — — 1990–91 New York Islanders NHL 60 2 4 6 238 — — — — — 1991–92 New York Islanders NHL 74 0 6 6 293 — — — — — 1992–93 New York Islanders NHL 74 2 5 7 216 15 0 0 0 16 1993–94 New York Islanders NHL 72 3 1 4 237 4 0 0 0 17 1994–95 New York Islanders NHL 39 0 2 2 109 — — — — — 1995–96 New York Islanders NHL 32 1 1 2 106 — — — — — 1996–97 Utah Grizzlies IHL 43 11 11 22 185 7 1 2 3 20 1996–97 New York Islanders NHL 17 1 0 1 71 — — — — — 1997–98 Tampa Bay Lightning NHL 42 1 0 1 116 — — — — — 1997–98 Montreal Canadiens NHL 22 0 0 0 76 1 0 0 0 0 1998–99 Utah Grizzlies IHL 48 8 7 15 226 — — — — — 1999–00 Utah Grizzlies IHL 71 6 15 21 249 4 0 0 0 2 2011–12 Cape Cod Bluefins FHL 1 0 0 0 4 — — — — — NHL totals 573 17 29 46 2,071 23 0 0 0 73