The kinetic-energy dependences of the reactions of Ni-n(+) (n=2-16) with D-2 are studied in a guided ion beam tandem mass spectrometer. The products observed are NinD+ for all clusters and NinD2+ for n=5-16. Reactions for formation of NinD+ are observed to exhibit thresholds, whereas cross sections for formation of NinD2+ (n=5-16) exhibit no obvious barriers to reaction. Rate constants of D-2 chemisorption on the cationic clusters are compared with results from previous work on neutral nickel clusters. Ni-n(+)-D bond energies as a function of cluster size are derived from threshold analysis of the kinetic-energy dependence of the endothermic reactions, and are compared to previously determined metal-metal bond energies, D-0(Ni-n(+)-Ni). The bond energies of Ni-n(+)-D generally increase as the cluster size increases, and parallel those for Ni-n(+)-Ni for many clusters. These trends are explained in terms of electronic and geometric structures for the Ni-n(+) clusters. The bond energies of Ni-n(+)-D for larger clusters (ngreater than or equal to11) are found to be close to the value for chemsorption of atomic hydrogen on bulk phase nickel.