Islanders: Best Player To Wear Number 46

Continuing our best of series, today we will look at the best player to wear number 46 for the New York Islanders in their history.

The number 46 hasn’t been too kind to the New York Islanders. Seven players have worn the numbers in the Isles history starting with Vern Smith in 1985. Smith played just one game in his NHL career, and it was for the Islanders wearing number 46.

Then, also in 1985, Scott Howson took over the number. He played just eight games wearing it but was fairly productive putting up five points and four goals over that brief stint. He was out of the league after 18 games.

In 1990, Dale Kushner wore the number for two games. He would play 82 games over the next two years in Philly and then be out of the league, noticing a trend here?

From 1996-1998, Jason Holland wore the number next. He played 12 games with the Islanders putting up one goal. After 81 games in the league, Holland called it a career.

In 2002, Marko Tuomainen wore it with the Islanders. He played just one game with the team getting 7:11 seconds of ice time.

In 2010, Matt Martin was the next victim to receive the unlucky number. He played five games in It before switching to 17 the following year. Martin did pick up two assists though in his first five games in the league.

Last but certainly not least we have Matt Donovan. Donovan was selected in the fourth round of the 2008 draft. He wore the number for 67 games over three years, by far the most. His best year was in 2013-14 when he played in 52 games putting up 16 points (2 goals, 14 assists).

After going four straight years without playing in the league, he would appear in two games for Nashville in 2018-19.

I don’t have it in my heart to award Matt Donovan as the winner, I just can’t do it. Instead, there will be no winner today as clearly that number brings some bad juju to anyone who dares to put it on for the Islanders.