Despite scoring 1,209 points and being one of only eight players in NHL history to record a 70-goal season, the three-time All-Star remains on the outside, looking in
By Jason Fink | April 10, 2026
Any time a hockey player’s name comes up in Hall of Fame conversations, it usually comes down to three questions:
Did he put up numbers? Did he win any hardware? Did he win a championship?
I’ve never fully bought into the awards or championships argument. Hockey is the ultimate team sport. Should a player be penalized because he played in an era loaded with talent, or because he spent years on subpar teams? I don’t think so. And yet, here we are, 27 years after Bernie Nicholls retired from the NHL, and he’s still on the outside looking in. Why?
Nicholls put up 1,209 points in 1,127 career games. That’s more than a point per game over a long, productive career. When the playoffs came around, he showed up there too, recording 114 points in 118 games. He currently sits 52nd all-time in NHL scoring, and yet he hasn’t gotten so much as a real push from the powers that decide who gets into the Hall. It’s mind-boggling. Critics will point to the obvious. No Stanley Cup. No major individual awards. Fine. Let’s address that.
Here are Hall of Famers who also didn’t win a Stanley Cup or major individual hardware:
Adam Oates- 1,420 points
Mike Gartner – 1,335 points
Phil Housley – 1,232 points
Norm Ullman – 1,229 points
Jeremy Roenick – 1,216 points
Dino Ciccarelli – 1,200 points
Michel Goulet – 1,153 points
Bernie Federko – 1,130 points
Borje Salming – 787 points
Mark Howe – 742 points
Out of that group, only one (Federko) finished with a higher points-per-game rate than Nicholls. Nicholls also had a higher points-per-game than Oates, who to me was the best passer this side of Gretzky. And if you want to bring up plus-minus, Nicholls finished at minus 39. Federko, who is in the Hall, finished at minus 131. Context matters.
Nicholls spent much of the early and mid-1980s playing on Los Angeles Kings teams that struggled defensively and consistently sat near the bottom of the standings. Before Wayne Gretzky arrived in 1988-89, the Kings’ records looked like this:
1981-82: 24-41-15
1982-83: 27-41-12
1983-84: 23-44-13
1984-85: 34-32-14
1985-86: 23-49-8
1986-87: 31-41-8
1987-88: 30-42-8
That’s not exactly a recipe for team success, and it certainly doesn’t fall on one player. Nicholls couldn’t control the defense in front of him or stop pucks from going in the net. Again, it’s a team game. What he could do was produce, and he did that at an elite level. Nicholls is one of just a handful of players in NHL history to record a 150-point season, joining names like Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Steve Yzerman, Connor McDavid, and Phil Esposito.
Nicholls hit that mark in 1988-89. He’s also one of only a select few to score 70 or more goals in a season, alongside Gretzky, Brett Hull, Lemieux, Esposito, Alexander Mogilny, Teemu Selanne, and Jari Kurri. That’s not fringe company. That’s elite company.
So what exactly is keeping Bernie Nicholls out? At some point, the numbers have to matter. The production has to matter. The context has to matter. Because when you look at the full picture, this isn’t a borderline case. It’s overdue. It’s time to get number nine in the Hall of Fame.
Jason Fink is a writer, husband, and dad of two based in St. Louis. A sports fan for over 40 years with a tremendous love for the St. Louis Blues and St. Louis Cardinals, he writes with the perspective of someone who’s lived every high and low. His work blends insight, storytelling, and the kind of opinions every fan has—but doesn’t always say out loud.
