On Friday, the Columbus Blue Jackets named Rick Nash as their new director of hockey operations. The new role seems to include everything he's been doing in the player development realm, combined with some oversight on the NHL roster as well. For better or worse, the team has tied their future to the greatest player to ever wear the union blue.
Nash will now be responsible for "all aspects of the team's hockey operations department", which tells us that he'll have a greater voice in the organization. Maybe the simplest way of putting it is that he'll be Don Waddell's right-hand man.
Rick is the greatest player to ever suit up for the Columbus Blue Jackets. Originally picked 1st overall by the team at the 2002 NHL Draft, he went on to play 1,060 games in the NHL, scoring 437 goals and 805 points. In nine seasons with the Jackets, he essentially wrote the record books for the franchise.
With all of that said, I'm not sure what to make of this promotion. Nash has worked exclusively behind the scenes for the franchise since retiring from hockey in 2018. Most of the years he's been in the front office have seen this team struggling at the bottom of the NHL standings.
That isn't to say it's his fault, or even partially his fault. But, there is a real lack of experience in winning organizations here. Being a great player does not necessarily mean he'll be a great front office person.
His only experience as a GM so far were with Team Canada for this summer's World Championships. They wound up finishing without a medal (4th place) - a disappointing result, to say the least.
All of these concerns will go away if the team can start finding success soon, rather than later. Clearly, there is some loyalty to Rick within the Blue Jackets organization, which is perfectly fine. If he's going to get a chance to run things, it may as well be with the team that he proved loyal to early in his career.
I don't think Don Waddell makes major decisions without knowing all of the facts. My biggest hope here is that Don actually had some say in this hiring, and it wasn't just sprung upon him. Having a cohesive front office is the first step towards building a competitive team. Hopefully, Rick is a positive building block within this front office.