Kirill Marchenko passes the 30 goal mark, a big accomplishment in Blue Jackets history

Columbus Blue Jackets forward Kirill Marchenko continues to assert himself as a budding young superstar in the NHL. Last night, his four point effort helped propel the team to an 8-4 win over the Nashville Predators, at Nationwide Arena. In scoring his first hat trick of the season, he surpassed the 30 goal mark; a rare feat in CBJ history.

Only 8 players have scored 30 or more goals wearing the Union Blue, a mark that has only been met 16 times in franchise history. Rick Nash did it 7 times, which means that the other 7 guys on the list have combined for 9 seasons of 30 or more goals.

Marchenko is the first player in six years to reach the mark. The last time someone scored 30 or more goals in Columbus was Cam Atkinson's team record tying 41 goal season in 2018-19. That year, the Blue Jackets swept the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the playoffs. It's been a while. In fact, the team has gone through an entire rebuild since then.

The first of many?

This may be Kirill Marchenko's first time achieving the 30 goal mark, but I do not think it will be his last. In last night's game against Nashville, he looked like a true goal scorer again; something that has been missing from his game since suffering a broken jaw on February 2nd.

He found soft areas in the Predators defense, and instead of chasing the game; he stayed in the open ice and waited for the puck to get to him. When the puck arrived, he wasn't second guessing or dishing the puck away. He was shooting quickly. When Marchy is doing that, he's as dangerous a goal scorer as any other player in the league.

In just his third season in the NHL, Kirill has 21, 23, and now 31 goals. The first two seasons could easily be written off because this franchise was in complete disarray. This version of Marchenko is the one we've been waiting to break out. This feels like only the beginning.

And, it's not all goal scoring here. He's become a dedicated two-way player, effectively working hard on both sides of the puck and winning battles all over the ice. This is evidenced by his team-leading +28 rating - which has him inside the top-20 in the entire NHL. Not bad for a guy who plays for a team that is -4 overall on the season.

Digging deeper via Money Puck, Marchy is second on the team in takeaways (32) to only Zach Werenski (44). He leads the team in Corsi% (58%), and also in on-ice xGF differential (+54). On the flip side, some may point to his 16.5% shooting percentage as unsustainable; but it's worth noting that a lot of his shot attempts have missed the net. My argument here is that he's right on par with what we should expect from a guy who generally gets a lot of shooting chances when he's on the ice.

When you put it all together, Marchenko is having a special season. Especially in comparison to other Blue Jackets.

His 31 goals and 70 points on the season have landed him inside of the top-10 in single season franchise history. His +28, as it stands, would be the second highest in team history (David Savard, +33). He is actively tied for the franchise lead with 29 goals scored at 5 on 5.

We can go on and on like this, but maybe it's easier to just say that what Kirill Marchenko has done this season, has been special. Had he stayed healthy and not been wearing a bubble for the last month, I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that he would already have 35 or more goals this year.

In franchise history, we've seen some very memorable individual seasons. Rick Nash's 41 goal season in 2002-03. His 40 goal, 79 point 2008-09 campaign that drove this team to its first playoff berth. Artemi Panarin setting the single season points record in back-to-back seasons. With everything that has happened to this team this year, I have to argue that this season from both Zach Werenski and Kirill Marchenko belong right in the middle of that list.