Brent Sutter will be inducted into Islanders' Hall of Fame

The rest of his Islanders teammates were in the dressing room in Vancouver celebrating their third Stanley Cup, but rookie center Brent Sutter had been asked to step outside and see coach Al Arbour.

Two playoff series earlier, Sutter’s turnover to the Rangers’ Rob McClanahan had cost the Islanders a goal. Arbour docked Sutter’s ice time until the Cup Final, when he finally sent Sutter onto the ice to take Bryan Trottier’s place on a power play.

Now Arbour was roughly holding the 19-year-old and lecturing intently.

“He grabs me underneath my chin,” Sutter recalled Friday after the Islanders announced he had been selected as the 16th inductee into the team’s Hall of Fame. “I’ve got my underwear underneath my equipment and he spins it. He says to me, ‘What did you learn from this?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know.’ He says, ‘I just made you one of the toughest, mentally strongest players in the NHL and you’re going to have a long career.’

“This is probably the key moment in my career.”

It will culminate with an induction ceremony on Jan. 18 before the Islanders face the Sharks at UBS Arena. The team also announced on Friday that a ring of honor will be established within their new arena.

“We are honored to celebrate one of the all-time New York Islander greats, Brent Sutter,” president and general manager Lou Lamoriello, who once hired Sutter as the Devils’ coach, said in a statement. “Brent was a key member of the 1982 and 1983 Stanley Cup championship teams and was a leader, serving as the fourth team captain in club history. He took pride in his role and epitomized what an Islander is all about.”

Sutter, now 62, was one of six brothers to play in the NHL, including Duane Sutter, his Islanders teammate. Another brother, Rich Sutter, later was his teammate with Chicago.

Renowned for his faceoff skills, Brent Sutter compiled 287 goals and 323 assists in 694 games for the Islanders before being dealt to Chicago on Oct. 25, 1991, when he and Brad Lauer were exchanged for Steve Thomas and Adam Creighton.

Sutter was the last active player from the Islanders’ 1980-83 Cup dynasty when he retired in 1998. He finished his career with 363 goals and 466 assists in 1,111 regular-season games.

He’s the first inductee into the team’s Hall of Fame since Butch Goring and John Tonelli in 2020.

“I’m certainly very honored,” Sutter said. “It’s not something you ever think about it or expect. When Lou called me and let me know, I was pretty emotional through it all.

“As you get older, you look back on your career and you look back on what you really wanted to be. It was never about personal goals for me. It was always about getting the most and the best out of myself to help your team succeed and wanting to be a great teammate, wanting to be someone who was very coachable.”

Sutter, who notched 10 goals and 11 assists in 20 postseason games to help the Islanders to their fourth straight Cup win, spoke with reverence of learning his craft as a center from teammates such as Trottier — whom he admits he idolized — and Goring.

Sutter went on to coach the Devils from 2007-09 and the Flames from 2009-12, with his brother Darryl as Calgary’s GM.

By Andrew Gross

andrew.gross@newsday.comAGrossNewsday

Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.