Confirmed with Link: CBJ to retire Rick Nash’s #61

[CBJWerenski8]

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[DarkandStormy]

Uhhh....why now? Wouldn't this have made sense at his retirement ceremony last year?

 

[CBJWerenski8]

Uhhh....why now? Wouldn't this have made sense at his retirement ceremony last year?

Having fans back and playing against a former team probably has some draw to it. I know he was only in Boston for a few months, but still.

 

[MFRONE]

Not sure how I feel about this

 

[LJ7]

Uhhh....why now? Wouldn't this have made sense at his retirement ceremony last year?

Fans in stands

 

[Speedy Sanderson]

His was the first jersey I ever put a number on the back. Rick may not have the career statistics of other players have who have their jerseys in the rafters for other teams, but there has been no Blue Jacket that's meant more to the organization. He was just about the only reason to go to games 10 to 15 years ago. Never had much of a surrounding cast. A great ambassador for the game and for the city. A class act. Happy for him.

 

[MFRONE]

So we are just suppose to forget him demanding a trade out of Columbus and for running Bob as a member of the Rangers?

 

[KallioWeHardlyKnewYe]

Good for Rick. Happy for him.

 

[Jovavic]

Not a fan of this, at all

 

[JacketsDavid]

He's the best we have.
I'm not a big fan of his either, but as others said he was our best player for a number of years and him coming home kind of sealed it.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

So we are just suppose to forget him demanding a trade out of Columbus and for running Bob as a member of the Rangers?

It'll be hard to do if people bring it up in the "retiring his number" thread.

For me, I don't have a problem. I booed him when I felt it was appropriate and cheered him likewise. We may not like that he's the best player in franchise history, but those are the guys who get their numbers retired.

Good for him, good for the organization.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

 

[majormajor]

. Rick may not have the career statistics of other players have who have their jerseys in the rafters for other teams

He's probably better than quite a few others that have had their numbers retired.

Oilers just retired Kevin Lowe's number and he was never an elite player.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

Cool to show Jake congratulating him. Cool to include a few words from Kuraly.

 

[LoneFunyan]

He's probably better than quite a few others that have had their numbers retired.

Oilers just retired Kevin Lowe's number and he was never an elite player.

Exactly - retired numbers aren't necessarily about being the best, just important/significant to the franchise.

Who the hell is Bob Plager or Barclay Plager or Bob Gassoff. All three have retired numbers for the Blues due to their importance in the early days of the franchise and not with actually being great players.

 

[WashedUp]

No way he was good enough to retire his number. He’s no Gretz, Howe, Orr or anywhere near a super star. He also wanted out of here and played half of his career somewhere else. CBJ just want something to hang in the rafters and they aren’t good enough to win anything to put up there. This is a farce!!

 

[majormajor]

Exactly - retired numbers aren't necessarily about being the best, just important/significant to the franchise.

Who the hell is Bob Plager or Barclay Plager or Bob Gassoff. All three have retired numbers for the Blues due to their importance in the early days of the franchise and not with actually being great players.

How dare you insult Barclay Plager! Why, he scored 33 points one year!

No way he was good enough to retire his number. He’s no Gretz, Howe, Orr or anywhere near a super star. He also wanted out of here and played half of his career somewhere else. CBJ just want something to hang in the rafters and they aren’t good enough to win anything to put up there. This is a farce!!

Was Barclay Plager way better than I'm imagining? Or are there a lot of retired numbers of players worse than Rick Nash?

 

[Frank Drebin]

Yup, makes sense. I like it.

 

[Long Live Lyle]

Only thing that kinda irks me (heavy emphasis on "kinda") is it's Foligno's return, and I don't really think that's fair to usurp that with Nash's retired jersey ceremony. If they wanted to do it against Boston, they're back in town less than a month later on April 4. Or do it when NYR are in town if it needs to be against a former team; he's much more associated with them than Boston anyway.

Regardless, I have no problem with the decision to retire his number, both in a vacuum (I think he's worthy enough as is) and within context (there's really nobody else close to him in the franchise that's currently retired, and with Bob's/Cam's departures probably preventing them from reaching that "retired number status", there may not be anyone else who'd be more worthy of a retried number than Nash for at least 15 more years [Werenski's the only player on the current roster who I think has the chance to surpass Nash in CBJ individual career accomplishments. Maybe Sillinger, but in that case, you can change the "at least 15 more years" to "at least 20 more years"]).

I'm also a person who doesn't mind "unconventional" jersey retirements if they're a significant/important person in the history of the franchise. It wouldn't even bother me if they announced they were retiring Shelley's number. It's not the Hall of Fame. Each franchise is different.

 

[MoeBartoli]

After 20 years of franchise history, he’s clearly the player who rose above all the rest. Put me down as one who supports #61 being retired.

 

[Halfboard]

No way he was good enough to retire his number. He’s no Gretz, Howe, Orr or anywhere near a super star. He also wanted out of here and played half of his career somewhere else. CBJ just want something to hang in the rafters and they aren’t good enough to win anything to put up there. This is a farce!!

You seem like a real happy person…

 

[Halfboard]

After 20 years of franchise history, he’s clearly the player to rose above all the rest. Put me down as one who supports #61 being retired.

Well said

 

[JacketLife]

Love it. Nash is one of the reasons local hockey exploded here. Guys like Jack and Kuraly looked up to him and may not be in the league today if it wasn’t for him being the face of the franchise.

 

[Monstershockey]

retired numbers aren't necessarily about being the best, just important/significant to the franchise.

This pretty much explains it. The truly great players will get their numbers retired and end up in the Hall of Fame. Players that were good with the franchise, and meant a lot to the fans get their numbers retired only, and usually just at the place they were good at.

Thanks for mentioning Bob Gassoff. Looking him up to see who he was, was interesting. He only played 4 years and had 866 penalty minutes. He was their enforcer and was starting to focus more on his skills than fighting because he already proved he could fight. He unfortunately died in a motorcycle accident at a team party after his fourth season when he was just 24.

 

[VT]

I like it and would want to be on this game.