New York Islanders Top 50 Players All-Time

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UNIONDALE, NY – JANUARY 16: The New York Islanders honored former player Bryan Trottier prior to the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on January 16, 2015 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

3. Bryan Trottier (385 points)

Depending on who you ask, like New York Islanders legend Mike Bossy for example, Bryan Trottier is the best center to ever play the game. Not The Great One, not Jean Beliveau, not Mark Messier, but Bryan Trottier.

It sounds like a bold claim, but Trottier has four Stanley Cups as an Islanders. He put up 1353 points in the blue and orange and won a King Clancy, and Art Ross for a 134 point season, a Hart, a Calder, and a Conn Smythe with 29 playoff points as the Isles won their first Stanley Cup.

And he came from nowhere.

Bryan Trottier was selected in the second round of the 1974 NHL draft. Famously the Montreal Canadiens had five first-round picks in the first round that season. Five! If not for drafting Mario Tremblay 12th overall Montreal would have had the worst first round ever.

But with the 22nd pick in the draft Trottier, who scored 112 points in 68 games for the Swift Current Broncos of the WHL in 1973-74 still wasn’t taken. Isles GM Bill Torrey didn’t hesitate. And it paid off.

Centering a line with Mike Bossy and Clark Gillies (named the Trio Grande) the Islanders would become one of only two NHL teams to win four back-to-back Stanley Cups. The Montreal Canadiens are the only other team to achieve the feat.

Trottier was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997 and had his number 19 was officially retired by the Islanders in 2001.

He was arguably the best center int he game, but he was inarguably the best center for the New York Islanders, ever.