Three-time NHL All-Star center Bernie Nicholls was a player’s player. His professional hockey career spanned 18 seasons from 1981 to 1999. He is one of only eight players in NHL history to score 70 goals in a single season and one of only five players to score 150 points. His 70 goals in the 1988-89 season still stand as the Los Angeles Kings franchise record for the most goals scored in a single season. Not even Hall of Fame center Wayne Gretzky could match that record in his time with the Kings. Coincidentally, Nicholls and Gretzky were teammates that season.
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“I played with Wayne Gretzky for a year and a half,” Nicholls recounts. “It was obviously a lot of fun, but it would have been more fun to play with him for longer. I got to play with him on the power play, and penalty kills.”
Nicholls’ consummate scoring ability made him valuable, but it was Gretzky who remained with the king’s ransom.
“Wayne needed players to play with… He didn’t mix well with [left wing] Luc Robitaille and [right wing] Dave Taylor – I played on the line with them instead. So, at the end of the day, they traded me to the New York Rangers and [Gretzky] got two players [left wing Tony Granato and right wing Tomas Sandstrom] to play with. Tough luck for me.”
The Kings made three straight Stanley Cup playoff appearances following Nicholls’ departure. However, Gretzky never won a Stanley Cup with the Kings and Nicholls once played the spoiler.
The puck came full circle when Nicholls and the Edmonton Oilers beat Gretzky and the Kings four games to two in the Division Semifinals of the 1992 Stanley Cup Playoffs two years after his trade from the Kings.
“Obviously, you want to win no matter who you’re playing against, but I think anytime a guy gets traded from a team, and he has an opportunity to come back and haunt that team, there’s no greater feeling,” Nicholls told the Los Angeles Times following the series.
The Oilers were eventually swept by the Chicago Blackhawks in the Conference Finals. However, Nicholls’ road to raising the Stanley Cup didn’t end in Edmonton. 20 years later, he found a chance with the team that traded him away.
“I was fortunate. I called a couple of times to try to work with the Kings and help them out. The Kings were playing the Minnesota Wild. The Kings had a 5-on-3, and they couldn’t score,” said Nicholls.
That game was December 8, 2011. Four days later, the Kings fired head coach Terry Murray. In Murray’s place, the team hired Nicholls’ former head coach Darryl Sutter on December 17.
“Fortunately, for me, Darryl Sutter took over. I asked if I could go there and try to help out. Sutter said ‘absolutely.’”
Nicholls played for coach Sutter with the 1994-95 Blackhawks and again with the San Jose Sharks from 1997 to 1999.
Nicholls, hired as a coaching consultant with the Kings, was told by Sutter, “We’re going on the road to Edmonton, I want you to come.”
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Nicholls brought a little puck luck with him.
“We won three [games] and tied one, so he wanted me to stay,” said Nicholls.
With Sutter leading the way and Nicholls at his side, the Kings were finally crowned. Los Angeles would go on to win the Stanley Cup, allowing Nicholls to live his dream vicariously.
“I can’t imagine what it was like to win it as a player,” Nicholls said of the team’s championship run. “Having an opportunity to win it as an assistant coach, though, was great. I still got to see it, and I got to live out the dream through the players. It was still a great ride – a lot of fun, a great group of guys. It was fun to be a part of it.”
Nicholls belief in the players continues to this day. He is part of the ongoing class action lawsuit filed in 2013 by two dozen former players against the NHL.
“I am a spokesman for the players,” Nicholls said. “What a lot of people don’t understand is that I am a Class A plaintiff. I don’t get paid for doing it. The Class B guys that really need it, I’m fighting for them.”
The plaintiffs are divided into two classes based on the long-term side effects they suffer as a result of the concussions. Players in Class B have more severe symptoms including “serious brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, and Parkison’s,” according to the litigation website.
“It’s kind of disappointing, sometimes, that more guys haven’t stepped up,” Nicholls relented.
“It’s not for us. It’s for our brothers that absolutely need it. If more guys knew what was going on, I think more would step up,” he continued. “There’s nothing better, in my opinion, than the family of the NHL – the brotherhood that you have. It’s time for us again – just like when we played – to play for the guy beside you. That’s what I do now, and I’m trying my best to help my guys out that need it.”
Fortunately, the NHL has come a long way in its care for the players since Nicholls’ days.
“The NHL has the concussion protocol in place – it’s awesome,” Nicholls praised. “A guy gets hit in the head, and right away they go to the quiet room. They can’t play until their brain heals and that’s the way it should be.”
“We never had that,” Nicholls recounts. “That’s disappointing as former players. The NHL knew they didn’t treat us right, but they’ve made steps to make it better for the kids today. So, if the NHL is making it better for the current players, then common sense tells you that, obviously, the league didn’t take care of the other guys before.”
Nicholls believes that the concussion lawsuit is a chance for the NHL to compensate the former players retroactively.
“So, now is a good chance for the NHL just to stand up and say, ‘You know what? We’re going to make it right.’ So, that’s what we’re kind of hoping for.”
When Nicholls isn’t giving his voice to his fellow players, he’s investing his money into teams through his new website AllSportsMarket.com.
“AllSportsMarket is, first and foremost, the first ever real-money sports stock market,” Nicholls explained. “It’s just like the New York Stock Exchange, except you’re investing in sports teams. It’s not gambling. If you invest tonight in the Minnesota Wild, and they lose a game, you’re not losing your investment. It’s not a bet. It’s not gambling. You get paid dividends with every win. If your team plays my team and your team wins, you take a percentage of the dividends pool. Every fan in the world that goes to the games wants to feel like they own a piece of their team.”
Nicholls is taking the proper steps to ensure the viability of the market.
“We have great promotions. Once a month, just for a free sign up, you are entered to win one million shares of the company. We’re going to go on a secondary, crowd-funded market by February 2017. The big goal is to go public shortly after that. We’re going to give every professional sports league 50 percent of every transaction made for their sport.”
Ultimately, Nicholls says AllSportsMarket is about the fans turning their emotional investment into a financial profit.
“Every fan gets to watch their investment perform every night. We set ourselves up just like the NYSE. We started as a non-profit, just like the Exchange. We’re doing everything right. We’re trying to get regulated so people can pay taxes on it just like the lottery. There’s nothing out there like this.”
Nicholls then explained the difference between AllSportsMarket and traditional fantasy sports.
“When playing fantasy sports, you have to build your own team, but if the players that you pick are playing against your favorite team, then you have a personal conflict; but with this, you get to invest in your favorite team and watch them perform every night.”
Perhaps Nicholls’ investment into both his fellow players and former teams will ultimately turn out in favor of the fans.
To invest for free at AllSportsMarket, click here.
Brad Omland is the Managing Editor of TheSportsBlaze.com. Follow him on Twitter for sports updates and commentary: @bradradio.
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