A former Boston Bruins forward who once starred at Barnstable High School has pleaded guilty to trying to pay a 16-year-old girl for sex, only to discover the person he had been messaging online was an undercover police detective. Eric Nickulas entered his guilty plea on September 16, admitting to electronic enticement of a child for commercial sexual activity and paying for sexual conduct with a child under 18. He was sentenced to two years' probation.
According to court documents cited by WCVB, prosecutors alleged Nickulas believed he was communicating with a 16-year-old girl and had arranged to meet and pay her for sex, but the person on the other end of the conversation was an undercover officer posing as the teenager. The same outlet had earlier reported that Nickulas told police he knew what he did was wrong, according to court documents.
The case traces back to an arrest at a Hyannis apartment complex, where police said Nickulas showed up expecting to meet the girl he had been messaging. Instead, he was met by a Barnstable police detective who had been posing as the teen, according to the Union Leader. Police said he had agreed to pay $150 for an hour of sexual activity before arranging the meetup, per an account from Hyannis News that quoted the messages exchanged with the person he believed was the girl: “I responded saying it would be $150 for a full hour which he said was perfect.”
An Arrest That Ended Without Incident
Detectives took Nickulas into custody at the apartment complex once he arrived for the planned meeting, according to the same Hyannis News report, which described him being “approached by several detectives and taken into custody without incident.” The case then moved through Barnstable Superior Court, where a grand jury returned two indictments against him charging electronic enticement of a child for commercial sexual activity and paying for sexual conduct with a child under 18, the Union Leader reported.
Court reporting on the case has shown a shifting timeline as it wound through the system, moving from an initial not-guilty plea to the guilty plea now on record. NBC Boston reported that Nickulas appeared in Barnstable District Court the day after his arrest and initially pleaded not guilty. The Union Leader separately reported that Nickulas pleaded not guilty to both indictment charges as the case continued before ultimately entering his guilty plea this month.
A Hometown Hockey Career Cut Short by Scandal
Nickulas's hockey career once made him a local sports name in Barnstable and beyond. He played for the Boston Bruins for four seasons, ending his time with the team in 2006, according to WCVB. The Union Leader reported that his stint with the Bruins ran from 1998 to 2001 and then again from 2005 to 2006, while Hyannis News reported that he also played professionally for the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks between 1999 and 2006.
Beyond the NHL, Nickulas had deep roots in the community where the crime occurred. He was inducted into the Barnstable High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2014, per Hyannis News, cementing his standing as a hometown sports figure long before this case surfaced.
The sentence of two years' probation closes out the criminal case, though the dossier of court reporting reviewed for this story does not specify further details of his probation conditions. WCVB's report crediting senior digital editor/producer Jamy Pombo Sesselman with the coverage confirmed the guilty plea and sentence as the final development in a case that began with an undercover sting operation in Barnstable.
