TOP 100 OILERS: BERNIE NICHOLLS (65)
7 years ago
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.
Bernie Nicholls
Center — shoots R
Born Jun 24 1961 — Haliburton, ONT
Height 6.00 — Weight 185 [183 cm/84 kg]
Drafted by Los Angeles Kings
Round 4 #73 overall 1980 NHL Entry Draft
BY THE NUMBERS
Season | Team | GP | G | A | PTS | +/- | PIM | S% | ATOI |
1981-82 | 22 | 14 | 18 | 32 | 2 | 27 | 22.2 | ||
1982-83 | 71 | 28 | 22 | 50 | -23 | 124 | 16.4 | ||
1983-84 | 78 | 41 | 54 | 95 | -21 | 83 | 16.1 | ||
1984-85 | 80 | 46 | 54 | 100 | -4 | 76 | 14.0 | ||
1985-86 | 80 | 36 | 61 | 97 | -5 | 78 | 12.8 | ||
1986-87 | 80 | 33 | 48 | 81 | -16 | 101 | 14.5 | ||
1987-88 | 65 | 32 | 46 | 78 | 2 | 114 | 13.6 | ||
1988-89 | 79 | 70 | 80 | 150 | 30 | 96 | 18.2 | ||
1989-90 | TOT | 79 | 39 | 73 | 112 | -9 | 86 | 13.6 | |
1989-90 | 47 | 27 | 48 | 75 | -6 | 66 | 15.7 | ||
1989-90 | 32 | 12 | 25 | 37 | -3 | 20 | 10.4 | ||
1990-91 | 71 | 25 | 48 | 73 | 5 | 96 | 15.3 | ||
1991-92 | TOT | 50 | 20 | 29 | 49 | 4 | 60 | 17.1 | |
1991-92 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 0.0 | ||
1991-92 | 49 | 20 | 29 | 49 | 5 | 60 | 17.4 | ||
1992-93 | TOT | 69 | 13 | 47 | 60 | -13 | 80 | 9.8 | |
1992-93 | 46 | 8 | 32 | 40 | -16 | 40 | 9.3 | ||
1992-93 | 23 | 5 | 15 | 20 | 3 | 40 | 10.9 | ||
1993-94 | 61 | 19 | 27 | 46 | 24 | 86 | 13.4 | ||
1994-95 | 48 | 22 | 29 | 51 | 4 | 32 | 19.3 | ||
1995-96 | 59 | 19 | 41 | 60 | 11 | 60 | 19.0 | ||
1996-97 | 65 | 12 | 33 | 45 | -21 | 63 | 8.8 | ||
1997-98 | 60 | 6 | 22 | 28 | -4 | 26 | 7.4 | ||
1998-99 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -4 | 4 | 0.0 | 11:01 | |
9 yrs | LAK | 602 | 327 | 431 | 758 | -41 | 765 | 15.4 | |
3 yrs | NYR | 104 | 37 | 73 | 110 | 1 | 116 | 13.2 | |
3 yrs | SJS | 135 | 18 | 57 | 75 | -29 | 93 | 7.9 | 11:01 |
2 yrs | CHI | 107 | 41 | 70 | 111 | 15 | 92 | 19.2 | |
2 yrs | EDM | 95 | 28 | 61 | 89 | -11 | 100 | 13.9 | |
2 yrs | NJD | 84 | 24 | 42 | 66 | 27 | 126 | 12.8 | |
Career | 1127 | 475 | 734 | 1209 | -38 | 1292 | 14.7 | 11:01 |
NOTABLE
When Glen Sather traded Messier and future considerations to the New York Rangers for Nicholls, Louie DeBrusk and Steven Rice in October 1991, mere weeks after shipping out Grant Fuhr and Glenn Anderson, the spin was the Oilers were rebuilding with youth. Messier was 31. Nicholls was 30. It was, of course, another salary dump.
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.
Messier, a member of all five of Edmonton’s Stanley Cup teams, was, of course, heralded as one of the great leaders in the game. Nicholls, on the other hand, was not. While there’s absolutely no debating Pumpernickel could bury the biscuit – he scored 475 career goals and scored 30-or-more goals eight times – he wasn’t a follow-me-boys kind of guy. Far from it.
THE STORY
That said, Nicholls didn’t perform badly during his tenure in Edmonton, given how much talent had been sent packing. Limited to 49 games in his first season here because of injuries, Nicholls still managed 49 points, which left him behind only Vincent Damphousse, Joe Murphy, Craig Simpson and Scott Mellanby in team scoring.
In 1992-93, Nicholls had 40 points in 46 games before Sather dealt him to the New Jersey Devils Jan. 13 for Zdeno Ciger and Kevin Todd. With the Oilers having staggered to a 14-25-7 start after a 4-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, Sather turned the page on the player he’d traded Messier for after just 95 games. It was bad times all around.
Nicholls never showed Oiler fans anything near his best during his tenure here. Even so, he still produced 28-61-89 in those 95 games and added 19 points in 16 playoff games in his first season here as the Oilers reached the Campbell Conference final, getting swept by Chicago.
This series will look at the top 100 Edmonton Oilers from the NHL era 1979-80 to 2014-15, starting with 100 and working up.
Listen to Robin Brownlee Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on the Jason Gregor Show on TSN 1260.
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