Blue Jackets’ Rick Nash Continues Rapid Rise in Front Office – The Hockey Writers – Blue Jackets Management

Rick Nash has made it no secret. It is his desire to eventually become a general manager in the National Hockey League. On Friday morning, the Blue Jackets helped Nash take one step closer to that reality.

Nash was announced as the Director of Hockey Operations. In addition, Zach Abdou was hired as Senior Manager of Hockey Operations. Basil McRae will serve as the Director of Pro Scouting. Our Nick Arnold detailed those changes here.

What will Nash be responsible for in his new role?

“Just similar to what we’ve been doing to keep growing within the organization” Nash said. “It’s just a title. I’ll still be doing everything I can to help this organization win.”

Before this announcement, Nash served as the Blue Jackets’ Director of Player Personnel. He also served in the front office on Team Canada at the recently completed Men’s World Championships. Once things got settled down for GM Don Waddell, things started to come together for this opportunity.

“I just went about my job and we talked about it over the last couple of weeks,” Nash said. “It was just ongoing. Not much has changed from my job description other than hopefully being around the team a little more.”

Ever since former GM Jarmo Kekalainen made the decision to bring Nash into the front office, he’s quickly risen up the ranks. From learning everything within the day-to-day hockey operations with the Blue Jackets to doing it on the national stage for Team Canada, Nash continues to soak everything in. His experiences are helping him prepare not only for becoming a GM in the future, but to help the team now.

“You get to meet a lot of different players, a lot of different management when you go to these tournaments,” Nash said. “For my personal growth, I get to deal with all the GM’s where I’m asking permission to talk to their players, all the agents. When you build those teams, you’re working inside a budget too on different premiums. You learn that pretty fast. There’s a lot of things you can experience.”

“You also gain a lot of knowledge at those tournaments and you’re around hockey for a month. So I feel like it’s beneficial for our organization that we have people involved in that when Chris Clark did it two years ago for Team USA. So it’s very important.”