"Nipigon" served most of her career with the RCN and later Canadian Forces' Atlantic Fleet. During her service with Maritime Forces Atlantic (MARLANT), she was primarily used as a training ship. After the discovery of cracks in the boilers of , all the "Annapolis"-class destroyers were temporarily taken out of service for an inspection in 1981. However, no cracks were discovered in "Nipigon". In 1982, "Nipigon" was tasked with searching for and recovering any survivors from "Ocean Ranger", a semi-submersible oil platform that had sunk in heavy seas. "Nipigon"s DELEX refit was performed by Davie Shipbuilding at Lauzon, taking place from 27 June 1983 to 22 August 1984 and cost $16 million.