Do you remember Scott Nichol?
Every week, we’ll look at a forgotten Calgary Flames player in the weekly series “A Flame From the Past.” Of course, the player had to have played a significant number of games for the Flames – at least a full season. Each week, I’ll put every Flames season (since moving to Calgary) in the Wheel of Names. This week, it landed on the 2002-03 season, with the player we’ll look at in today’s article being Scott Nichol.
Nichol, born in Edmonton, Alberta, played for the Portland Winterhawks beginning in the 1992-93 season, scoring 31 goals and 64 points in 67 games. In turn, the Buffalo Sabres selected the right-shot centre in the 11th round. Returning to the Western Hockey League for the 1993-94 season, Nichol scored 40 goals and 93 points in 65 games, with three goals and 11 points in 10 post-season games. In his two seasons in junior, Nichol picked up 290 penalty minutes.
In 1994-95, Nichol turned professional and played for the American Hockey League’s Rochester Americans, scoring 11 goals and 27 points in 71 games. He once again had a ton of penalty minutes, 136 to be exact. The 1995-96 season saw him make his National Hockey League debut, playing just two games with the Sabres with 10 penalty minutes. With the Americans, he scored 14 goals and 31 points in 62 games, helping the team capture the Calder Cup thanks to seven goals and 13 points in 19 games.
Nichol didn’t play for the Sabres in 1996-97, instead scoring a career-high 22 goals and 43 points in 68 games with 133 penalty minutes. The Edmonton-native played another three games in the NHL in 1997-98, but spent most of his season in the AHL where he scored 13 goals and 20 points in 35 games.
Over the next three seasons, Nichol spent three seasons in the minors, scoring 27 goals and 82 points in 156 games. In 2001-02, he found his way to the Flames where he became an NHL regular, scoring eight goals and 17 points in 60 games. In 2002-03, still with the Flames, Nichol scored five goals and 10 points with a career-best 149 penalty minutes.
For the 2003-04 season, he played for the Chicago Blackhawks, scoring seven goals and 18 points in 75 games. In the 2004-05 lockout, Nichol headed overseas to play for the London Racers in the Elite Ice Hockey League. In 2005-06, he played for the Nashville Predators, scoring three goals and six points in 34 games, along with six games in the American Hockey League, his last games in the AHL.
Nichol became a regular for the Predators in 2006-07, scoring seven goals and 13 points in 59 games. In 2007-08, the centre scored a career-high 10 goals and matched his previous best of 18 points. Two seasons later, now with the San Jose Sharks, he scored four goals and a career-high 19 points. Nichol played three more seasons after that, another season with the Sharks and two with the St. Louis Blues, retiring after the 2012-13 season.
The Edmonton native took a job with the Predators as the head of player development, and now serves as their American Hockey League team’s general manager, a position he’s held since 2018.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for FlamesNation, Oilersnation, and Blue Jays Nation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.
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