Islanders: Best Player To Wear Number 28

Continuing our best of series, today we will look at the best player to wear number 28 for the New York Islanders in their history.

23 players have worn the number 28 for the New York Islanders in their history. Again, we’re going to skip over the first player to ever wear it to avoid giving away the answer too early and instead look at some other notables to wear it.

Bob Bassen, Don Maloneu, Tom Kurvers, Felix Potvin, Wyatt Smith, Marek Zidlicky, and Michael Dal Colle also wore the number. Of that list, we’re going to go with Tom Kurvers for the honorable mention.

In 1991, the Isles traded Craig Ludwig straight up for Kurvers. In his first year with the team, he put up an impressive 56 points from the blue line. The following season, at age 30, he only played in 52 games but he still had eight goals and 38 points to go along with it.

Again, injuries held him back in 1993-1994 as he played in just 66 games but finished with 40 points on the season. In his three years on Long Island, he finished with 134 points in 192 games.

Our winner for today is Anders Kallur. Kallur made his NHL debut with the Isles in 1979-1980 and had 52 (22 goals, 30 assists) after coming over from the CHL. His best year came in 1980-81 when he put up 64 points and finished 10th in Selke voting.

He would have one more solid year putting up 40 points in 58 games and finishing 22nd in Selke voting before the wheels began to fall off. His point total would drop to 14, 23, and 28 to round out his career in the NHL.

He didn’t play in any playoff games during the 1980 season so he is only credited with three Stanley Cups from 1981-1983. Over six years with the Islanders, Kallur finished with 211 points (101 goals, 110 assists).

Kallur was a scout for the Islanders from 1989 to 2013 before he would eventually leave to work for the Rangers for a few years before retiring. He was a big reason why the Rangers decided to go with Filip Chytil and Lias Andersson in the 2017 draft.