COLUMBUS, Ohio — It was the night before the 2002 NHL draft and Rick Nash had an audience with six or seven members of the Columbus Blue Jackets front office.
Known as being a bit of a quiet kid, they decided to put him on the spot.
Columbus owned the third pick that year and Doug MacLean, the team’s GM and president, recalls asking Nash if he would still be available when the team went to the podium at Air Canada Centre the following morning.
“Nope,” came the reply. “You’ll have to trade up and get me.”
That confidence sealed the deal for Columbus. Nash was their man.
“I was on the phone with (Florida GM) Rick Dudley 15 minutes later,” MacLean said Friday. “We negotiated all night before completing the trade.”
The soft-spoken 18-year-old instantly became the face of a franchise in its infancy. Coach Dave King considered him to be the team’s best player two months into his rookie season and Nash would share the NHL’s goal-scoring title with Ilya Kovalchuk and Jarome Iginla the following year.
Back then, a weekend like this was only a dream.
Nash played an undeniable role in getting the organization from there to here, but he didn’t take it the whole way. The July 2012 trade he orchestrated to the New York Rangers has made this all-star experience a touch “awkward” — at least that’s the overwhelming feeling he experienced after walking into Nationwide Arena on Friday morning.
A trip back here is always a trip down memory lane.
“I remember my first night here — scoring my first goal in the second period against Chicago,” said Nash. “I remember my second year coming back and winning the Rocket Richard (Trophy), which was pretty special as a 19-year-old. And then I remember the lockout.
“Then I remember coming here the year after and being on the ice with (late owner John H. McConnell) — because I got hurt in training camp — and me and him presenting Columbus with the Rocket that I won the year before.”
This is where Nash grew up.
He came here as a kid, albeit a mature one, and is now a father. The birth of his son, McLaren, in October is easily the most notable thing that’s happened to him this season.
“It’s the best thing in the world,” said Nash. “You can’t compare it to anything in sports or anything else in life. It’s up there on its own.”
At age 30, Nash is supposed to be beyond his statistical peak on the ice. Yet he arrives here now as the NHL’s co-leader with 28 goals, putting him on a pace to obliterate his career best of 41.
One explanation for the renaissance season might be the fact he’s been healthy after suffering a concussion a year ago. Nash scored just three goals during a run to the Stanley Cup final last spring and is asked often what’s changed since.
“I can’t really put my finger on just one thing that’s the reason,” said Nash. “I think the biggest thing is my teammates believed in me, they stood by me. The organization believed in me.
“Pucks are going in — my linemates have been finding me, I’m getting good bounces — if you watch our games every night a lot of the goals are lucky.”
That notion was refuted this week using Sportsnet contributor Chris Doyle’s shot quality project. Nash seems to be showing more of a willingness to get to the inside and, according to analytics compiled by Bloomberg Sports, he’s taken 32.7 per cent of his shots this season from within 15 feet of the net compared with 20.7 per cent a year ago.
A sign of his growth can be seen when the topic of another Rocket Richard Trophy is raised. What would it mean to get a second one more than a decade later?
“Not that much,” said Nash. “I want the other one that we were close to last year. As you get older in your career, you want to help the team win (and) the personal goals don’t matter nearly as much as the team goals.”
What he’s talking about, of course, is the Stanley Cup.
The Rangers were beaten in a five-game final last year and that still haunts Nash to this day. Professionally speaking, it’s all he thinks about.
“It makes you realize how many things have to go right to get that far and to win it,” said Nash. “It sits on you, it sits on you pretty hard. And it’s a tough thing to forget. It keeps that fire ignited in your belly to get back there.”
Older, wiser, he is back in Columbus this weekend — and fully expects to be greeted as the resident villain. His “gut” tells him that he’ll be roundly booed during Saturday’s skills competition and Sunday’s all-star game, just as he was during the fantasy draft on Friday night.
But this is also a man who knows his place in the world.
The Rangers visited Nationwide Arena earlier this month and several Columbus players and staffers waited in the hallways afterwards to shake hands with him. He might be an enemy of the fans, but his legacy inside the organization is already assured.
“I think I’m over the boos, like it doesn’t really affect me anymore,” said Nash. “I feel like I put a lot of work into this city and this organization. I feel like I put half of my career into Columbus and tried to build hockey the best I can in the area.
“It seems to be taking off pretty good.”
Nash has had as good a view as anybody.