Mick Vukota

Mick Vukota
Born	(1966-09-14) September 14, 1966 Saskatoon, SK, CAN
Height	6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
Weight	215 lb (98 kg; 15 st 5 lb)
Position	Right Wing
Shot	Right
Played for	New York Islanders Tampa Bay Lightning Montreal Canadiens
NHL draft	Undrafted
Playing career	1987–2000

Marinko "Mick" Vukota (born September 14, 1966) is a former NHL Right Wing. Undrafted, he signed with the New York Islanders, who were looking to add toughness and muscle to their roster, on March 2, 1987. Vukota worked his way up the system and found himself skating on NHL ice by the end of the 1987–88 season, and he even scored his first goal. Also, perhaps more significantly, he registered 82 penalty minutes in 17 games on the way to becoming his team's top enforcer. Over the next decade, Vukota forged a reputation as a tough scrapper and punishing forechecker who could occasionally pop in a goal. He was suspended several times by the league for on ice behaviors, and this added to his growing tough-guy reputation. He went on to become the Islanders' career penalty minutes leader (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 would be 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. He was nicknamed "Mick the Quick" and "Mickster".

NHL statistics

				Regular season						Playoffs
Season	Team	League		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
1987–88	New York Islanders	NHL		17	1	0	1	82		2	0	0	0	23
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	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		40	0	2	2	109		—	—	—	—	—
1995–96	New York Islanders	NHL		33	1	1	2	106		—	—	—	—	—
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
NHL totals				575	17	29	46	2071		23	0	0	0	73

See also

• List of NHL players with 2000 career penalty minutes

External links

• Mick Vukota career statistics at The Internet Hockey Database
• Mick Vukota at Hockey-Reference.com
• Mick Vukota biography at Legends of Hockey (archived)