Career
Undrafted, he signed with the New York Islanders, who were looking to add toughness and muscle to their roster, on March 2, 1987. Vukota worked his way up the system and found himself skating on National Hockey League ice by the end of the 1987-1988 season, and he even scored his first goal. Also, perhaps more significantly, he registered 82 penalty minutes in 17 games on the way to becoming his team"s top enforcer.
Over the next decade, Vukota forged a reputation as a tough scrapper and punishing forechecker who could occasionally popular in a goal.
He was suspended several times by the league for on ice behaviors, and this added to his growing tough-guy reputation. He went on to become the Islanders" career penalty minutes leader (1,879), but his one-dimensional style resulted in a demotion to the Utah Grizzlies of the IHL in 1996-1997.
He split the 1997-1998 season between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens in what would be his last year in the National Hockey League, surpassing 2,000 career penalty minutes, and then played two more seasons with the Grizzlies in the IHL before retiring. He was nicknamed "Mick the Quick" and "Mickster".