Marinko M. "The Quick, Mickster" Vukota (born September 14, 1966 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) 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. But more importantly, 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 behavior, and this added to his growing tough guy reputation. He went on to become the Islander career penalty minutes leader (1,879 PIM), 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 2 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 Capital Centre on 20th October 1989.[391215]

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
	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

External links