New York Islanders Trivia
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49 free New York Islanders trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The New York Islanders exist because Nassau County wanted to keep a rival league out of its brand-new Coliseum, and within eight years Bill Torrey's draft-built roster was lifting the Stanley Cup. This Islanders trivia quiz covers the whole story: the 12-60-6 first season, Denis Potvin over the Canadiens' objections, the Trio Grande, Bob Nystrom's overtime winner, four straight championships and the 19-series streak that no team in any sport has matched, the '1940!' chant, the Easter Epic and Mike Bossy's 50 in 50. It then follows the strange decades that followed: the fisherman logo and 'fishsticks' taunts, John Spano's fraud, 'Mad Mike' Milbury drafting Rick DiPietro, the 15-year contract, John Tavares, the Brooklyn years, Barry Trotz and Lou Lamoriello, Mathew Barzal's Calder Trophy, two trips to the conference finals and the move to UBS Arena at Belmont Park. Easy questions for casual fans sit alongside genuinely hard ones about the dynasty. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedic and reference sources before publishing, and each question carries a citation. For more, try our NHL trivia and hockey trivia pages.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Islanders were created largely to keep which rival league's team out of Nassau Coliseum?
World Hockey Association
World Hockey Association: its New York Raiders were left to rent Madison Square Garden on harsh terms, and in their second season they fled to Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
Q 02Many expected the Islanders to borrow which nickname from Long Island's older minor-league hockey club?
Ducks
Ducks: the Long Island Ducks of the Eastern Hockey League had played in Commack for more than a decade, so the name seemed a natural, but the new franchise called itself the Islanders instead.
Q 03Which winger captained the Islanders from 2018 through the 2025-26 season?
Anders Lee
Anders Lee, a sixth-round draft pick, was handed the 'C' hours before the 2018-19 opener after the previous captain left for Toronto, and his team swept Pittsburgh in the playoffs that spring.
Q 04Which general manager, known as 'The Architect', built the Islanders through the draft from 1972?
Bill Torrey
Bill Torrey refused to trade draft picks for other teams' castoffs, telling the owners the club had to develop its own stars; his banner shows a bow tie instead of a number.
Q 05Which unwanted NHL record did the expansion Islanders set in their first season, 1972-73?
Most losses in an NHL season
Most losses in an NHL season: the Islanders went 12-60-6, though they did beat the champion Bruins 9-7 in Boston, and Washington lost 67 games two years later to take the record.
Q 06Which defenseman, touted as 'the next Bobby Orr', did the Islanders draft first overall in 1973?
Denis Potvin
Denis Potvin was so prized that Montreal's Sam Pollock offered a package of veterans for him; the Islanders said no, and Potvin went on to captain their championship teams.
Q 07Before the Islanders hired him in 1973, Al Arbour had coached which team he once captained to three straight Finals?
St. Louis Blues
St. Louis Blues: Arbour was the expansion club's first captain, playing in its three straight Finals from 1968, then coached it until he was fired 13 games into the 1972-73 season.
Q 08In 1975 the Islanders became the second NHL team to win a series from 3-0 down, against which opponent?
Pittsburgh Penguins
Pittsburgh Penguins: Ed Westfall's goal with 5:18 left won Game 7 1-0, and the Islanders then fell 3-0 behind Philadelphia in the next round and forced a seventh game again.
Q 09Bryan Trottier's 95 points as a 19-year-old in 1975-76 won him which award?
Calder Memorial Trophy
Calder Memorial Trophy: the Islanders had drafted Trottier at 17 and left him in junior for another year, and his 95 points then set a rookie record that lasted until 1981.
Q 10The Islanders drafted Mike Bossy in 1977 on the reasoning that a scorer can more easily be taught to do what?
Check
Check: in the best-known telling, coach Al Arbour made that case for Bossy over a two-way forward, and twelve teams skipped the junior scoring star before the Islanders took him 15th.
Q 11Which centre, traded from Los Angeles in March 1980, is often called the Islanders' 'final piece of the puzzle'?
Butch Goring
Butch Goring cost the Islanders two popular veterans, Billy Harris and Dave Lewis, but gave them a second scoring line, and they won the Stanley Cup that spring and the next three.
Q 12Whose overtime goal in Game 6 of the 1980 Final delivered Long Island's first Stanley Cup?
Bob Nystrom
Bob Nystrom scored at 7:11 of overtime after the Islanders had blown a 4-2 third-period lead over Philadelphia, converting a pass from John Tonelli.
Q 13Which pair made the 1980 Islanders the first Stanley Cup winner with European-trained players?
Q 21Which Capitals player drew a then-record 21-game suspension for a 1993 hit on the Islanders' star center?
Dale Hunter
Dale Hunter hit the Islanders' top scorer from behind as he celebrated a series-clinching goal, separating his shoulder; Hunter sat out the first 21 games of the next season.
Q 22Which Islander's overtime goal in Game 7 eliminated the two-time defending champion Penguins in 1993?
David Volek
David Volek finished a two-on-one with Ray Ferraro at 5:16 of overtime, ending Pittsburgh's bid for a third straight Stanley Cup.
Q 23Rangers fans mocked the Islanders' 1995 fisherman logo with which chant?
'We want fishsticks!'
Stefan Persson and Anders Kallur
Stefan Persson and Anders Kallur, both Swedes, went on to play on all four Islanders championship teams; Persson's late goal forced overtime in Game 1 of the 1980 Final.
Q 14Which taunt did Islanders fans start during a 1981 sweep of the Rangers that spread across the league?
'1940!'
'1940!' was the year of the Rangers' last Stanley Cup; fans in other NHL cities picked up the chant, and it followed the Rangers until they finally won again in 1994.
Q 15Whom did the Islanders beat in the 1982 Final, the first coast-to-coast Stanley Cup Final?
Vancouver Canucks
Vancouver Canucks: the Cinderella team was swept, and Mike Bossy scored one goal while falling, knocked into the air by a hit, on his way to the Conn Smythe Trophy.
Q 16Which Islanders goalie won the Conn Smythe after shutting down Gretzky's Oilers in the 1983 Final sweep?
Billy Smith
Billy Smith allowed only six goals in the four-game sweep, and the Oilers later said the sight of the champions icing their injuries afterwards taught them what winning costs.
Q 17How many straight playoff series did the Islanders win from 1980 until their loss in the 1984 Final?
19
19: the streak nearly died in 1982, when the Islanders trailed late in a deciding first-round game before John Tonelli tied it and then won it in overtime.
Q 18The Islanders' 1984 'Drive for Five' ended in the Final against which team?
Edmonton Oilers
Edmonton Oilers: swept by the Islanders in the Final a year earlier, they won this rematch in five games, the first of their five Stanley Cups in seven seasons.
Q 19Whose goal in the fourth overtime ended the Islanders' 1987 'Easter Epic' against Washington?
Pat LaFontaine
Pat LaFontaine kept the puck in Washington's zone and fired a slapshot past Bob Mason just before 2 a.m. on Easter Sunday, after Kelly Hrudey had made 73 saves.
Q 20Which centre came to the Islanders in a 1991 blockbuster trade with Buffalo?
Pierre Turgeon
Pierre Turgeon was the centrepiece of the package Buffalo sent for the Islanders' star centre, who had demanded a trade, and in his first full season he scored 58 goals and 132 points.
'We want fishsticks!' played on the logo's likeness to the Gorton's frozen-fish fisherman, and the Islanders went back to their old crest as soon as the league allowed.
Q 24Which shoulder patch did the Islanders' fisherman-era jerseys of the mid-1990s carry?
A lighthouse
A lighthouse: the patch showed the Montauk Lighthouse, part of a seafaring redesign meant to tie the team more closely to Long Island and to sell more merchandise.
Q 25Which fraudster agreed to buy the Islanders for $165 million in 1996 despite having almost no money?
John Spano
John Spano ran the club on forged bank documents until the deal collapsed in 1997; he was sentenced to 71 months in prison, and ESPN told the story in the film 'Big Shot'.
Q 26Which two future stars did Islanders GM Mike Milbury trade to Florida in June 2000?
Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokinen
Roberto Luongo and Olli Jokinen fetched Oleg Kvasha and Mark Parrish, and Milbury then used the first overall pick on another goalie, passing over Dany Heatley and Marian Gaborik.
Q 27Which defenseman went to Ottawa in the 2001 deal that brought Alexei Yashin to Long Island?
Zdeno Chara
Zdeno Chara went to Ottawa with Bill Muckalt and the second overall pick, then grew into a Norris Trophy winner who captained Boston to the 2011 Stanley Cup.
Q 28Which Islanders goalie signed a 15-year contract in 2006?
Rick DiPietro
Rick DiPietro played only 50 games over his last five seasons because of injuries, so the Islanders bought out the final eight years in 2013, at $1.5 million a year for 16 years.
Q 29Which backup goalie retired in 2006 to become the Islanders' general manager?
Garth Snow
Garth Snow went straight from the crease to the front office when the Islanders fired Neil Smith about 40 days into the job, and he stayed as general manager for 12 years.
Q 30Al Arbour signed a one-day contract in 2007 to reach what coaching milestone with the Islanders?
1,500 games coached
1,500 games coached: two days after turning 75, Arbour took the bench for one night at coach Ted Nolan's request and won 3-2, and the team hung a new banner reading 1500.