Never one to shy away from a deal -- he'd make five trades at the 2002 draft alone -- MacLean swung a trade with Florida, which held the No. 1 pick. He'd get his man in Nash.
And a few months later, when the Blue Jackets opened the season at Nationwide Arena against Chicago, it all seemed worth it on a magical evening. Nash scored the team's first goal of the season midway through the second period, with the 18-year-old showing a tantalizing glimpse of the talent that would be to come, and Mike Sillinger later added the winner as the Jackets beat the Blackhawks by a 2-1 score to win the season opener for the first time.
It was an auspicious start, and the Blue Jackets would go on to have a better season than
the 2001-02 campaign
. Columbus posted a 29-42-8-3 mark, a 12-point improvement from the year prior, but it still was good only for last place in the ever-competitive Central Division. By early January, a frustrated MacLean made a coaching change, firing the only head coach the team had known in Dave King and installing himself as the top man.
While Columbus immediately won three games, all on the road for the franchise's first-ever three-game winning streak away from Nationwide Arena, the move didn't have a tremendous impact on the team's fortunes, as King won 14 of his 40 games in charge and MacLean captured 15 of 42.
A year after the league's worst offense submarined the team's efforts, this time around the Blue Jackes were the second-worst defensive team in the league. It was hardly fair to pin it all on goaltender Marc Denis, as after an offseason trade of Ron Tugnutt, the 25-year-old played in 77 games, breaking the NHL record for minutes played in a season with 4,433. He also played in front of a totally rebuilt defense that battled injuries and ineffectiveness even after the offseason signings of Luke Richardson and Scott Lachance.
Up front, Columbus was a middle-of-the-pack team thanks to some bounce-back seasons as well as the addition of Andrew Cassels in free agency. New captain Ray Whitney had another Wizard-like season, leading the squad in all three major categories with 24 goals, 52 assists and 76 points on the way to earning an All-Star bid.
Cassels proved to be a shrewd signing as he posted a 20-48-68 line in 79 games, while Geoff Sanderson returned to health to post a CBJ-record 34 goals to go with 33 assists. David Vyborny added 20 goals, while Tyler Wright had 19, Mike Sillinger had 18 and Nash finished his rookie year with 17 of his own.
The season ended with a flourish as well. Wright scored three goals in a March 20 victory vs. Toronto, becoming the first CBJ player to net two hat tricks in a season. Nine days later, he was one-upped by Sanderson, who became the first CBJ player to score four times in a game during a win at Calgary.
