Bernie Nicholls

Amateur

Nicholls played with the Junior D Haliburton Huskies from 1975 to 1977, before joining the Junior B Woodstock Navy Vets in Woodstock, Ontario. During his sole season with the Vets, Nicholls set a franchise rookie record with 41 goals and 79 points through 40 games.^[5] In 1978, Nicholls was drafted by the Kingston Canadians of the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League (OMJHL).^[8] As a rookie with the Canadians, Nicholls led all rookies in scoring with 36 goals and 79 points.^[9] Following his rookie season, Nicholls was drafted in the fourth round of the 1980 NHL entry draft by the Los Angeles Kings.^[10] Although numerous scouts were concerned about his skating, Wren Blair advised the Kings to draft him.^[4]

Nicholls returned to the Canadians for the 1980–81 season and set numerous new single-season franchise scoring records.^[11] He started the season with 14 points over five games while playing alongside Justin Hanley and Scotty Howson.^[12] He was then named the league's Player of the Week on November 17 after scoring four goals and 10 assists through four games.^[13] Nicholls maintained his scoring streak throughout February and moved into fourth place in the league's scoring race.^[14] He scored his 50th goal of the season and 200th career point later that month against the London Knights.^[15] On February 26, Nicholls broke Tony McKegney's franchise record for most points in a single season.^[16] He finished the regular season with a franchise-record 63 goals, 89 assists, and 152 total points.^[11] During the regular-season, Nicholls signed a two-year contract with the Los Angeles Kings.^[17]

Los Angeles Kings

Nicholls arrived at the Kings' 1981 training camp overweight and out of shape. As such, he was assigned to their American Hockey League (AHL), the New Haven Nighthawks, to start the 1981–82 season.^[18] After a slow start to the season,^[4] Nicholls led the league in scoring with 41 goals through 55 games.^[19] The Kings, however, were struggling to win games and eventually replaced their head coach on January 11. As their new head coach, Don Perry made significant changes to their lineup and worked to allow younger players more chances.^[20] Nicholls was called up to the NHL on February 18, 1982, as the Kings were experiencing a five-game losing streak.^[21] He scored his first two career NHL goals in his ninth NHL game on March 9, against the Colorado Rockies.^[22] He continued to score at a rapid pace throughout the month and recorded three hat-tricks through three consecutive home games.^[23] He scored his first career NHL hat-trick on March 17 against the Calgary Flames^[24] and his second hat-trick on March 21 against the Pittsburgh Penguins.^[25] Nicholls' final hat-trick of the month occurred on March 28 against the Colorado Rockies.^[26] He finished the regular-season with 14 goals and 18 assists through 22 games and helped the Kings qualify for the 1982 Stanley Cup playoffs.^[21]

As he had only played in 22 games the previous year, Nicholls still maintained his rookie status upon returning for the 1982–83 season.^[20] After opening the season without a point, Nicholls experienced a seven-game point streak between October 9 and October 23.^[27] By November 8, Nicholls led all rookies in scoring with 21 points and was an early favourite to win the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's Rookie of the Year.^[20][28] However, he suffered a knee injury in mid-November and was expected to miss four weeks to recover. At the time, he led the team in scoring and all rookies in points.^[29] Nicholls missed only eight games due to the injury and returned a week early on December 9. However, head coach Don Perry was critical of Nicholls in his first game back and theorised that he came back before he was ready.^[30] Both Nicholls and the Kings struggled the remainder of the season, and USA Today sportswriter Rod Beaton attributed the team’s failure to qualify for the 1983 Stanley Cup playoffs to Nicholls’s performance. After returning from his knee injury, Nicholls recorded only 12 goals and 14 assists for 26 points in 52 games.^[31]

The Los Angeles Kings started the 1983–84 season with a six-game losing streak.^[32] Nicholls helped break the streak while also tying a franchise record by scoring four goals and six points on October 21 against the Edmonton Oilers.^[33] Head coach Don Perry praised Nicholls' attitude, saying "Bernie (Nicholls) has done a complete turnaround, both on and off the ice this year. He's become a team leader now."^[34] Nicholls led the team in scoring through November while consistently playing alongside Jimmy Fox and Brian MacLellan.^[35] By the end of December, he had surpassed his previous season's points total.^[36] Nicholls fractured his jaw during a game against the Calgary Flames at the end of January, but played two more games before getting his jaw wired shut.^[37] Despite this, he played the entirety of February with his jaw wired shut before cutting the wires in an airport before the Kings' March 11 game against the Chicago Black Hawks. He scored two goals that night to help the Kings end their franchise record losing streak.^[38] The following game, Nicholls became the fourth player in franchise history to score 40 goals in a single season.^[39] He became the first player besides Marcel Dionne to lead the team in scoring in over a decade.^[40]

Nicholls broke numerous league and franchise records throughout the 1984–85 season. Although he went pointless through the team's first three games,^[41] he finished the regular season with 100 points.^[42] On November 13, 1984, Nicholls became the first player in NHL history to score a goal in all four periods of a game (including overtime).^[43] It also marked his fifth NHL hat-trick and the second time in his career that he scored four goals.^[44] The following month, Nicholls set a new franchise record by maintaining a 25-game scoring streak. It was also the fourth-longest scoring streak in NHL history at the time.^[41][45]

Injuries that limited Nicholls to just 65 games in the 1987–88 season, and the rise of young centre Jimmy Carson, saw Nicholls slip to third in team scoring. On August 9, 1988, the Kings completed a blockbuster trade that brought Wayne Gretzky to Los Angeles. Slotting into the second-line centre job behind Gretzky set the stage for the most productive season for Nicholls, who noted his enjoyment at playing with Gretzky, stating, "It was the opportunity of a lifetime. I got to play with arguably the greatest player in the world for one year, and I took full advantage.”^[46] He scored a team-record 70 goals and added 80 assists for a total of 150 points, with the 70th goal coming on the heels of a hat trick in the penultimate game of the season that saw him score on an empty net. The 70th goal made him only the ninth player with a 70-goal season in NHL history. Nicholls played the line with Gretzky for the power play, which saw him record 49 of his 150 points on the powerplay, although he also recorded eight short-handed goals and six short-handed assists.^[47][48][49] Despite this, he did not receive any votes for the Hart Memorial Trophy (he finished 2nd in goals, 5th in assists, and 4th in points).^[50] It was the only time that Nicholls recorded a 50-goal season in his career.

The following season, Nicholls continued producing points for Los Angeles, highlighted by an eight-point effort on December 1, 1988, against the Toronto Maple Leafs, which put Nicholls into another small group, becoming one of only 13 players in NHL history to record an eight-point game.^[51] By the All-Star break, Nicholls had 75 points in 47 games and was selected, along with teammates Gretzky, Luc Robitaille and Steve Duchesne to play in the All-Star Game. The night before the All-Star Game, the Kings traded Nicholls to the New York Rangers in exchange for wingers Tomas Sandström and Tony Granato.^[52] Despite now playing for an Eastern Conference team, Nicholls played in the All-Star Game the next day representing the Western Conference (and playing against his new teammate Brian Leetch.) Despite his solid offensive production, the Kings were having a mediocre season with a 21-21-5 record at the time of the deal. Kings owner Bruce McNall felt "something was missing" and that the Kings were "soft" and needed some grit.^[49] Nicholls left the Kings as the franchise's fifth all-time leading scorer.^[53]

New York Rangers

Nicholls joined the New York Rangers following the All-Star Game and while he did not keep up his torrid scoring pace, he did produce at over a point-a-game pace for New York; in total, he had 39 goals and 73 assists for 112 total points for his last 100-point season as a player.^[54] The following season saw him contribute 25 goals and 48 assists for 73 points in 71 games, but playoff success eluded the Rangers in his tenure, with the team not reaching past the second round.^[55]

One game into the 1991–92 season, Nicholls was again involved in a blockbuster transaction when Rangers general manager Neil Smith packaged him up with prospects Steven Rice and Louie DeBrusk and shipped him to the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for Mark Messier. Nicholls, however, did not report to the Oilers for two full months because his wife was pregnant with twins and on bed rest. A week after the babies were born, he finally left New York to join the Oilers after surrendering over a quarter of a million dollars in salary for not reporting.^[56]

Edmonton Oilers

When Nicholls did finally join the Oilers, he posted 49 points in 49 games with the Oilers. He saved his best production for the postseason where he helped lead the Oilers to the Conference Finals. He was particularly effective in the first round where he posted five goals and 13 points in a six-game defeat of his former team, the Los Angeles Kings. Nicholls along with teammates including Joe Murphy, Vincent Damphousse, Dave Manson, Esa Tikkanen, and Bill Ranford took a 3-1 series lead against Division Champions Vancouver Canucks and took the second-round series victory home at Edmonton in Game 6 to advance to the 1992 Western Conference Finals. In the following season, his production slowed down and the Oilers finally accommodated his wish to move back East when they dealt him to the New Jersey Devils for young forwards Kevin Todd and Zdeno Ciger on January 13, 1993; he had recorded eight goals and 32 assists in 46 games prior to the trade.^[57][58]

Later career

Nicholls joined the Devils for their January 16 game against the New York Islanders, recording an assist. A week after joining the team, his son Jack fell into a coma that he never recovered from.^[59] Nicholls recorded 13 goals and 47 assists for the 1992–93 season that saw heightened criticism that he had lost a step in his game.^[60][61] Nicholls adapted his game to become more of a defensive forward in the tight-checking system of then-Devils coach Jacques Lemaire.^[62] He served as a key player for the team in the 1993–94 season that saw him score 19 goals with 27 assists in 61 games as the team finished with the second-best record in the league. In the February 13, 1994 game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Nicholls scored a goal off Pat Jablonski to record his 1,000th career point as a player, doing so in his 858th career game.^[63][64] The Devils reached the Conference Finals but lost to the eventual Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers in seven games.^[65] When he became a free agent in July 1994, the Devils did not offer make him a qualifying offer. As such, on July 15, Nicholls signed a $2.1 million contract with the Chicago Blackhawks for one year with an option year.^[66]

In the strike-shortened 1994–95 season, Nicholls scored 22 goals while recording 29 assists for 51 points. Nicholls recorded one goal with eleven assists in 16 Stanley Cup playoff games as the Blackhawks lost in the Conference Finals. In his second and last season with Chicago, he played in just 59 games and recorded his last 50-point season with 19 goals and 41 assists for 60 total points as Chicago lost in the second round of the playoffs. In the 1996 offseason, Nicholls, now a free agent, wanted to play closer to his home in Brea, California. He received offers from the Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues but did not receive an offer from the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. However, he received attention from the San Jose Sharks and on July 30, 1996, Nicholls signed a two-year, $4.4 million contract (which included a third-year option) with the team.^[67] Nicholls scored 12 goals with 33 assists in his first season with San Jose. In his last full season with the Sharks, he reached the playoffs for the last time, recording five assists in six games.

Nicholls played just ten games of the 1998–99 season as a "fourth-line, checking center". He recorded no goals with two assists, with the final point coming on November 18 against the Los Angeles Kings in San Jose. He played what ended up as his final game in a 2-2 tie on November 21 versus the New York Rangers. In that same month, general manager Dean Lombardi suggested that Nicholls retire and join the Sharks' front office. On November 22, 1998, the team announced the retirement of Nicholls, although he expressed surprise that the team announced it the way they did. The team announced that they were planning to offer Nicholls an undetermined job within the organization. The way that his career ended still struck a nerve decades later in an interview that Nicholls had, as he noted that his time was withered down on the fourth line because head coach Darryl Sutter wanted to give time to Ron Sutter, his brother. While he harbored no ill will to Sutter, he felt that Lombardi failed to stand up for the team. ^[68][69][70]

At the time of his retirement, he ranked 26th in NHL history in points and 32nd in goals.^[71] Nicholls averaged 1.07 points per game, making him one of 26 players at the time to play 1,000 games and average a point a game.^[72]

Regular season and playoffs

International