Who do you think are the greatest enforcers in New York Islanders history? Here’s our list.

Long Island hockey and fighting have gone together hand in glove - or "hand in no gloves" - since before the Islanders were even born.

For one thing, it's little secret the lead character in the hockey-brawl classic Slap Shot was based on 60's ruffian John Brophy, player coach of the EHL's popular – and raucous – Long Island Ducks.

When the EHL folded, the Slap Shot spirit remained on the Island with the rambunctious, disrespected and oft-underfunded Isles. (Heck, since fighters work for scale, there were years in the 90's when about half the Islander lineup was enforcers.) From coming-of-age moments (1975, 1980, 2011) to spontaneous fits of vengeance (1990, 1993, 2002), most key plot points of Islander history have been surrounded by major fisticuffs.

So who are the Top Five Islander fighters? That's more than a matter of skill. It's also about who you fight, when and why..

1) Clark Gillies

Don't be misled by his All-Star quality offense. Clark Gillies is not just the Islanders' best left-winger. He's their greatest tough guy too.

Clark's penchant for pugilism is a big reason why he's in the Hall of Fame. In fact, if one can measure a fighter's worth by the talent he protected, it's hard to imagine a more valuable enforcer than "Jethro," who was asked to guard some of the most precious cargo in the sport as a ten-year linemate to Bryan Trottier and Mike Bossy.

As a youngster, the 6'3" Saskatchewanian bullied his way to 570 penalty minutes in three years with Regina of the Western League. He was more selective as a pro, saving his brawn for the toughest competition and the biggest moments. The result, frankly, was a dynasty. That's because Gillies' epic takedowns of Philly's Dave Schultz in 1975 and Boston's Terry O'Reilly in 1980 have been cited by nearly every Isle of the era as turning points in the maturation of the club. Therefore, despite only 39 career bouts in blue and orange, Clark Gillies is the greatest fighter in team history.

2) Mick Vukota

This 6'1" slugger from Saskatoon oozed enforcer-hood – down to every last stereotype – and unapologetically so. Even the name "Mick Vukota" sounds like that of a professional hit-man, and for all we know, he may have been one on the side. What we do know is that Mick Vukota is the name that defined the Long Island fighting circuit for nearly a decade, and that's enough to get him on the list.

Vukota may not have been as polished as other fighters, but he was by far the most willing, and sometimes that's all that matters. He is the Islanders' all-time penalty minutes leader by an enormous margin. In ten seasons between 1987 and 1997 he was in 160 fights, also a team record. Most importantly, he was freaking nuts, which is more than half the battle.

3) Eric Cairns

Cairns has danced the "Gloves Down Go-Go" seventh most times in club history despite appearing in only 340 total games for the Islanders. But he's not on the list for quantity, he's on it for quality, because at a monstrous 6'6" 230lbs., this Ogre from Oakville, Ontario won just about all his battles – decisively - including a few triumphs that live on in Islander lore to this day. Indeed, more than twenty years later, Big Eric's salute to the Coliseum crowd after dropping Toronto's Shayne Corson like a sack of dirt in the 2002 playoffs remains one of the more lasting images of Islander-cana. He was also known to brutalize a hated Ranger or two – especially mouthy Sandy McCarthy - during years when the Isles and Blueshirts couldn't get through a period in under an hour.

4) Micheal Haley

What the Gillies-fueled Philly and Boston melees were to the Al Arbour era, the infamous Friday Night Massacre of February 11, 2011 was to the current "Silver Age" of Islander hockey, ie: a moment in which the entire culture of the franchise changed in the course of one evening. On that night, the young Islanders came together and unleashed their frustration on a high caliber Penguins team that had been battering and mocking them for weeks. Leading the charge was an undrafted rookie named Micheal Haley, who scored a hat trick of sorts; three fights in one game, including two on the same play!

Haley knocked out Craig Adams in the first period, then performed back-to-back ego-ectomies on Max Talbot and goalie Brent Johnson, inspiring chants of "HA-LEY! HA-LEY!" from the blood-thirsty crowd. True, Haley would play only 43 career games as an Islander. But for his role as the main pot-stirrer in one of the most memorable - and important - fighting moments in team history, he makes the list.

Honorable Mention: Matt Martin. This "identity" Islander had 27 PIMs that night against the Pens and kept that "all-for-one" mentality going for years. He's now the sixth most penalized Islander of all-time and has fought 87 bouts for the club.

5) Bob Nystrom

This entry comes from the middleweight division, but it's a dandy nonetheless. We don't typically think of hockey fighting as "stylish," but when Bobby Ny got going, there was something downright pretty about it, with that long, thin, strawberry blond spaghetti hair whooshing around the arena while he punched and punched his heart out.

All Bobby's fights were fast and action packed. The most exciting part was that Ny didn't seem to care what happened to his face. He just wanted to grab a jersey, swing his hair and punch as quickly and as many times as possible. Now who doesn't want to watch that?

Thanks largely to his 99 knuckle-fests in the 70's and 80's, "Mr. Islander" ranks fifth on the franchise penalty minute list – not bad for a guy better known for scoring a healthy handful of the biggest goals in team history.

Honorable Mention: Garry Howatt. If guys like Nystrom and Steve Webb were on the smallish side of the roughhousing business, then 5'9" 175 lbs. Garry Howatt was downright tiny. But that didn't stop the 10^th round draft pick from getting into 146 fights as an Islander! And you can bet almost all of them were against bigger opponents.