In 1928, Manitoba’s own Nikolas “Nick” Wasnie began his NHL career. He would go on to play for five teams in seven years, scoring 57 goals in the process. But his true and lasting fame wasn’t his on-ice statistics, it was his legacy as the first Nick in NHL history.
He was followed by Nick Metz and then Hickey Nicholson and then 209 more Nicks of different stripes. Nicks, Nics, Niks, Nicolases, Nikitas, Nicklauses, Nicos, Nikolais, Nicholsons, Nikolishins — they all belong to a close-knit fraternity of people named, I guess, for the Greek goddess of victory, Nike.
But those initial seasons were lean years for Nicks. In the first two-thirds of the 20th century, Nicks weren’t nearly as common as they would become. The late 1970s brought an explosion in Nick births, I don’t know why, and in 2015 a record nine Nicks began their NHL careers.
No team in NHL history has laid claim to more Nicks than the Washington Capitals of recent years, but in their first few decades Nicks were few and far between. They had Paul Nicholson in the inaugural season (four goals, five assists, minus-29, thanks for coming out). In time they added Nick Kypreos and Andrei “Niko” Nikolishin, but the true Nick era didn’t begin until the drafting of Nicklas “Nicke” Backstrom in 2006.
