Islanders: Best Player To Wear Number 59

Continuing our best of series, today we will look at the best player to wear number 59 for the New York Islanders in their history.

Only four players have ever worn the number 59 for the New York Islanders. The first to ever do it was Tom Fitzgerald who wore the number in his first year in the league with the team. In 1988-1989, Fitzgerald put up eight points in 23 games.

As a former first-round pick, the expectations were high for Fitzgerald, who would then switch to number 7 and then 14 with the Isles. The most amount of points he ever finished with in a season on Long Island was 27 in his final year with the team in 1992-1993.

Then, in 2002-2003, Alain Nasreddine wore the number for the Islanders. He played just three games with them putting up no points in 12:11 of ice time on average per game. He’d finish his NHL career with 74 games (44 coming in the 2006-2007 season with Pittsburgh).

Michael Haley played the enforcer role for the Islanders for three years. In his first two years with the team, he wore number 59 will doing his damage with his fists. Here’s Haley taking on Sean Avery in 2011:

His best year with the Islanders came in 2010-2011 when he played in 27 games, put up three points, and had 85 minutes of penalties. Now, all these years later, he is still in the league dropping the gloves but for the New York Rangers.

The last Islander to wear the number was Brett Gallant. He wore it for four games in the 2013-2014 season with New York. It was the only four games of his NHL career. He didn’t record a point while averaging 6:53 of ice time per game.

I don’t know if we can really award a winner, Haley is the only one who wore it for multiple years so I guess by default it’s him, despite his limited role. In his defense, anyone who can beat up Sean Avery should get the nod.