Rick Nash Franchise All-Time Points Record
Fifteen years, one franchise, and the most points Columbus ever saw from a single player.
Rick Nash's franchise all-time points record stands as the single most dominant individual statistical achievement in the history of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Selected first overall in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, Nash spent fifteen full seasons (2004–05 through 2018–19) in the Blue and Red, building a career that redefined what a franchise built in 2000 could produce at the forward position. He is the all-time leading scorer and all-time leading goal scorer in club history, a dual distinction that no other player in the organization's history has matched.
In a franchise that struggled to find consistent offensive identity in its early years, Nash was the gravitational center around which the team's attack was constructed. His record is not merely a line in a spreadsheet; it represents the highest ceiling of individual production the Blue Jackets have ever witnessed, and it remains the benchmark against which every subsequent generation of Blue Jackets forwards is measured.
- Player
- Rick Nash
- Franchise
- Columbus Blue Jackets
- Draft
- 1st overall, 2004 NHL Entry Draft
- Franchise Tenure
- 2004–05 through 2018–19 (15 seasons)
- Franchise Record (Points)
- All-time leading scorer
- Franchise Record (Goals)
- All-time leading goal scorer
- Calder Memorial Trophy
- 2005–06
- All-Star Selections
- Multiple-time NHL All-Star
Lore & Background
When the Blue Jackets took the first overall pick in 2004, the organization was four seasons old and still searching for its identity. Nash arrived as a 19-year-old from the OHL's Oshawa Generals, and the expectation was immediate: he would be the face of the franchise. The 2005–06 season validated that faith beyond expectation. He won the Calder Memorial Trophy, the franchise's first major individual award, and announced to the league that Columbus had found its offensive anchor.
The years that followed saw Nash evolve from a raw, physical scorer into one of the most complete two-way forwards in the NHL. He became the first Blue Jackets player to record 100 points in a single season, a milestone that had eluded the franchise since its inception. His 2007–08 and 2008–09 campaigns cemented his status as a perennial All-Star and a legitimate top-five talent in the league. He carried the scoring load in a team that often lacked depth, and his 30-plus goal seasons became the standard the organization aspired to but rarely replicated after his departure.
By the time Nash left Columbus after the 2018–19 season to sign with New Jersey, his statistical legacy was already etched into the franchise record books. The points record he set was not just the highest total; it was a record built across a full career arc, from rookie wonder to veteran leader. In a club that has seen many players come and go, Nash's numbers remain the touchstone—the 'what if' and the 'what was' that define the Blue Jackets' offensive history.
In Their Own Story
The arena hums with the particular electricity of a Columbus home game in the early 2000s. The ice is freshly resurfaced, the Zamboni's trail still glistening under the lights. A young kid in a too-big Blue Jackets jersey sits in the third row, clutching a program, watching the number 87 skate out for warmups. The stick is long, the stride long, and the kid knows—some instinctive, bone-deep knowing—that this is the player the whole city will talk about for the next decade and a half. The puck drops. The first shift is quiet, exploratory. But by the second period, the kid is on his feet, mouth open, as 87 winds up and the puck buries into the top corner with a sound like a crack of thunder in a small room. The kid will grow up. The jersey will be retired or not. But the points—the points will sit in the record book like a stone at the bottom of a river, and every forward who comes after will have to swim around it.
Reader's Guide
The achievement: Rick Nash holds the Columbus Blue Jackets' all-time career points record, a mark that also encompasses the franchise's all-time goals record. He is the only player in club history to combine both distinctions, making his statistical legacy uniquely singular.
When it happened: The record was built incrementally across fifteen full NHL seasons, from his rookie campaign in 2004–05 through his final season in Columbus in 2018–19. The 100-point milestone, first reached in the 2007–08 season, marked the moment the franchise's scoring ceiling was permanently raised. Each subsequent season added layers to the total, and by the time he departed, the record was a career's worth of accumulation rather than a single-season burst.
Significance: For a franchise that began play in 2000 and spent its first several years finding its footing, Nash's record represents the highest individual offensive production the organization has ever achieved. It is the statistical embodiment of the Blue Jackets' identity as a team built around one transcendent talent. In a league where records shift with free agency and trades, Nash's mark is inextricably tied to Columbus because he built it entirely within the franchise, season after season, without ever wearing another NHL sweater during his prime. It is, in the truest sense, a Blue Jackets record—owned by the city, the arena, and the fans who witnessed every point accumulate in real time.
Did You Know?
- Rick Nash was the first player in Blue Jackets franchise history to record 100 points in a single NHL season, a milestone that had been out of reach since the team's 2000 inception.
- He won the Calder Memorial Trophy in 2005–06, making him the franchise's first recipient of a major NHL individual award.
- Nash was the first overall pick in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft, selected by Columbus out of the OHL's Oshawa Generals, and he went on to become the all-time leading scorer in franchise history.
- He is the only Blue Jackets player to hold both the all-time points record and the all-time goals record simultaneously, a dual distinction no other player in the organization's history has achieved.