Top 100 Oilers: No. 83 — Bernie Nicholls

Notable

While the Messier trade was consummated in early October of 1999, it wasn’t until early December that Nicholls actually joined the team, as his wife, who was expecting twins, was put on 23 hours a day of bedrest at 28 weeks pregnant. Even when he did, rumours swirled about a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs that would’ve sent him, Petr Klim, and Troy Mallette east for Daniel Marios, Rob Pearson, and Michel Petit.

When he did arrive, he did so swiftly, scoring 20 goals and 49 points in 49 games that year, finishing sixth in goals and fifth in points. The Oilers would make the playoffs and go on a run, eventually getting swept in the Campbell Conference Finals by the Chicago Blackhawks, but Nicholls made his mark, with eight goals and 19 points in 16 games.

He followed it up with eight goals and 40 points in 46 games in 1992-93, but ultimately, Nicholls didn’t want to be in Edmonton. He would get traded to the New Jersey Devils on in January 1993 for Zdeno Ciger and Kevin Todd.

The Story

If there were a Hockey Hall of Very Good, Nicholls would be in it. He was a fourth-round pick who played 1127 NHL games for six teams across 18 seasons. That kind of longevity is hard to come by, as just 169 players in the league’s 107-year-old history have played at least 18 seasons. He racked up 475 goals and 1209 points, but he never won an award and never hoisted Lord Stanley’s Mug.

Drafted by the Los Angeles Kings in the fourth round of the 1980 draft, he spent eight and a half seasons there — the longest stop of any team — before being dealt to the Rangers for Tony Granato and Tomas Sandstrom. His time there didn’t last long and was even shorter in Edmonton, though his pitstop in New Jersey was the shortest of any, playing just 84 games.

He’d close out the final five years of his career with the Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks, signing with each as a free agent.

What Brownlee said

Time healing old wounds as it tends to, it was nice to see Bernie Nicholls working the room and shaking hands with other former members of the Edmonton Oilers at celebrations leading up to the team’s final game at Rexall Place in April. So, too, the polite applause Nicholls received from a capacity crowd when he was introduced with the other old Oilers.

I wondered then, as I always have, how good Nicholls might have been had he actually wanted to be in Edmonton, which he most certainly didn’t. That’s somewhat understandable, given that the team was barely a shadow of what it had been, but as the main piece coming back in the trade that saw one of the last remnants of the great Oiler teams, Mark Messier, sent to Broadway, it didn’t end well.

…

Nicholls, an unquestionably gifted player just three years removed from scoring 70 goals with the Los Angeles Kings, was scheduled to earn about $600,000 for the 1991-92 season, Messier was at $1.08 million and was soon to jump to $2.3 million. You do the math.

The Last 10

• No. 93 — Dave Manson
• No. 92 — Willy Lindstrom
• No. 91 — Sheldon Souray
• No. 90 — Pat Maroon
• No. 89 — Mark Napier
• No. 88 — Igor Ulanov
• No. 87 — Zdeno Ciger
• No. 86 — Devan Dubnyk
• No. 85 — Jaroslav Pouzar
• No. 84 — Jarret Stoll