Blue Jackets to retire Rick Nash’s No. 61

[-Vintage Canuck-]

 

[Bell]

Big man had quite the career.  Enjoy retirement.

Edited November 11, 2021 by Bell

[Rubik]

one of the most beautiful goals i've ever seen

 

 

[bigbadcanucks]

Definitely deserving of a jersey retirement...but, for a guy who I remember as being dominant he didn't post the numbers that I thought he did (GP: 1060 G: 437 A: 368 TP: 805...playoff numbers: GP: 89-18-28-46).

 

Good on Nash.  He was a great player and put the Blue Jackets on the map.

[saucypass]

15 minutes ago, bigbadcanucks said:

Definitely deserving of a jersey retirement...but, for a guy who I remember as being dominant he didn't post the numbers that I thought he did (GP: 1060 G: 437 A: 368 TP: 805...playoff numbers: GP: 89-18-28-46).

 

Good on Nash.  He was a great player and put the Blue Jackets on the map.

For context, it was mainly because he was carrying those CBJ teams all those years. He was a winger that scored around 40 a year with basically no help as there would typically be a significant discrepancy between him and the second leading point scorer on the team. He led the BlueJackets to the playoffs only once 2008-09 and scored 23 points more than Huselius (56 pts.) that season. 

 

Shame he was wasted all those years! 

[Bell]

53 minutes ago, Rubik said:

one of the most beautiful goals i've ever seen

 

 

Wholly F

[kanucks25]

Fun player to watch when he was on. Rare mix of power and skill.

[SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME]

43 minutes ago, suitup said:

For context, it was mainly because he was carrying those CBJ teams all those years. He was a winger that scored around 40 a year with basically no help as there would typically be a significant discrepancy between him and the second leading point scorer on the team. He led the BlueJackets to the playoffs only once 2008-09 and scored 23 points more than Huselius (56 pts.) that season. 

 

Shame he was wasted all those years! 

Was going to say the same.

 

I’m not trying to compare Nash to Ovechkin, but if you swapped him into Ovy’s spot on those Washington teams, and played Nash for 1000 games alongside guys like Semin, Bäckström, Kuznetsov, Oshie, Green, Carlson, etc, you can bet that Nash would have broken 40 goals several more times, and easily finished with 1000+ NHL points for his career.

[*Buzzsaw*]

Well deserved honour.

 

Nash never had a real chance to be a part of a Cup Winner, except in NYR but by the time he was there, he was not the same player he had been earlier.

 

He did participate in and contribute to Olympic Gold Medal Winning Canadian teams in 2010 and 2014.

[-AJ-]

Underrated guy I think by more recent fans. He really was amazing in his prime.

 

That said, I'm on the fence with this one. 547 points in 674 games (289 goals) with the Jackets is impressive, but not usually jersey retirement-worthy. I guess the best case that it's still justified is the sort of "beginning of the franchise" story, much like how Kurtenbach is in the Ring of Honour despite only playing four seasons with the Canucks in the NHL.

 

The other case for him is that his career started in the height of the dead puck era and that the Blue Jackets were basically never better than mediocre while Nash played for them.

[-AJ-]

6 hours ago, Rubik said:

one of the most beautiful goals i've ever seen

 

 

This often sticks out in my mind as the most beautiful goal I've ever seen.

[StanleyCupOneDay]

8 hours ago, -AJ- said:

Underrated guy I think by more recent fans. He really was amazing in his prime.

 

That said, I'm on the fence with this one. 547 points in 674 games (289 goals) with the Jackets is impressive, but not usually jersey retirement-worthy. I guess the best case that it's still justified is the sort of "beginning of the franchise" story, much like how Kurtenbach is in the Ring of Honour despite only playing four seasons with the Canucks in the NHL.

 

The other case for him is that his career started in the height of the dead puck era and that the Blue Jackets were basically never better than mediocre while Nash played for them.

Isn’t almost a PPG career on an underfunded team that lacked stars to compliment him a truly remarkable achievement though? He’s ranked 222nd all time in points per game over his career. He played for 16 years.
 

Doing the math there’s what 23 guys minimum per team that play each year? That’s 736 guys in 1 season minimum. So over 1 season he’s in the top 30% of players in the league. If every team turns over their roster 1 time over those 16 years that puts him in the top 15%. It obviously happens more then that, but that’s a conservative estimate. Couple in the fact that only 92 of those 222 other players ranked higher then Nash on the PPG list played at some point during the same time period as his career and he’s likely at least in the top 5% all time in the NHL.

 

Feel free to disagree, but at those numbers, over his long career and given his playing during modern times after the high goal scoring era I think it’s well deserved. Add in the obstacles he faced with the team he played for and the guys he played with I would think he’d be Hockey Hall Of Fame material in addition to being worthy of jersey retirement.

[Russ]

For a dud of a franchise, dude was legit.  Nash was one of the most dominant wingers of the time with zero support with him for his prime years.  I don't know why the jackets just could never find a half decent center and winger for him compared to other teams.

[Kumquats]

Well deserved. It's too bad he didn't have a decent team around him. 

[Kumquats]

18 hours ago, Rubik said:

one of the most beautiful goals i've ever seen

 

 

I remember seeing this and thinking, "I scored a goal exactly like this in floor hockey in 4th grade. I think he's my favorite player now."

[BabychStache]

I always wanted to see him with the Twins. Would have been magic. 
 

like others have said, you’ve gotta look past his numbers as his teams were garbage. He was a 1 man show. 

[250Integra]

19 hours ago, Rubik said:

one of the most beautiful goals i've ever seen

 

 

Can't believe that was 13 years ago....

[AK_19]

I'm quite surprised, Nash didn't leave the BJs on good terms and were mediocre to bad the years he was on the team. I mean they didn't win a single playoff game in his 9 years there. After he left they made the playoffs around 5/8 seasons. 

[McBackup]

14 hours ago, -AJ- said:

Underrated guy I think by more recent fans. He really was amazing in his prime.

 

That said, I'm on the fence with this one. 547 points in 674 games (289 goals) with the Jackets is impressive, but not usually jersey retirement-worthy. I guess the best case that it's still justified is the sort of "beginning of the franchise" story, much like how Kurtenbach is in the Ring of Honour despite only playing four seasons with the Canucks in the NHL.

 

The other case for him is that his career started in the height of the dead puck era and that the Blue Jackets were basically never better than mediocre while Nash played for them.

Its also because Columbus doesn't really have much to celebrate. He was the first real star player they ever had. Different franchises have different bars for number retirement. There are multiple numbers in the rafters at Rogers arena that probably wouldn't be retired had they played for certain other teams. I don't think number retirement should be some strict bar like the HHOF. It should be more about what you meant to the club.

[-AJ-]

6 hours ago, StanleyCupOneDay said:

Isn’t almost a PPG career on an underfunded team that lacked stars to compliment him a truly remarkable achievement though? He’s ranked 222nd all time in points per game over his career. He played for 16 years.
 

Doing the math there’s what 23 guys minimum per team that play each year? That’s 736 guys in 1 season minimum. So over 1 season he’s in the top 30% of players in the league. If every team turns over their roster 1 time over those 16 years that puts him in the top 15%. It obviously happens more then that, but that’s a conservative estimate. Couple in the fact that only 92 of those 222 other players ranked higher then Nash on the PPG list played at some point during the same time period as his career and he’s likely at least in the top 5% all time in the NHL.

 

Feel free to disagree, but at those numbers, over his long career and given his playing during modern times after the high goal scoring era I think it’s well deserved. Add in the obstacles he faced with the team he played for and the guys he played with I would think he’d be Hockey Hall Of Fame material in addition to being worthy of jersey retirement.

It's worth noting that when Columbus is retiring his number, only his tenure with Columbus is relevant, not his entire career.

 

Use the Canucks (who some think have a low bar for number retirement) as a comparison:

 

Stan Smyl: 896 games (673 points)

Trevor Linden: 1140 games (733 points)

Pavel Bure: 428 games (478 points)

Markus Naslund: 884 games (756 points)

Henrik Sedin: 1330 games (1070 points)

Daniel Sedin: 1306 games (1041 points)

 

Rich Nash: 674 games (547 points)

 

Where Nash would fall short is longevity. By Canuck standards, he would fit more in the Ring of Honour level than number retirement category. For instance, Thomas Gradin had 550 points in 613 games and is in the Ring of Honour.

 

The main difference is probably as @McBackup says, in that there is some degree of relativity in which players get their numbers retired from team to team. Nash still stands as the games, goals, assists, and points leader despite leaving the team almost 10 years ago. He also led as team captain for four seasons, a record that was recently surpassed by Nick Foligno. He was an inspiration to the young team, giving them a guy who tied for the Rocket Richard trophy in 2003-04 and something to celebrate and get fans out of their seats so early into their team's existence.

 

I suppose it's merited for the Blue Jackets in retrospect, but wouldn't be for most other current NHL teams.