Over 23 seasons of hockey, 338 players have worn the union blue sweater, and it’s probably fair to say that for each of them, they dreamed about making a long career in Columbus when they put it on for the first time.
That’s easier said than done in hockey, and the numbers prove it. Just 110 of those players have made it to 100 games in CBJ colors; the 200-games club has 53 members; and only 27 Blue Jackets have skated in at least 300 games.
The air gets more and more rare the higher you climb, and once you get into the 500s, the names are found on plenty of sweaters to this day in Nationwide Arena, from Klesla and Vyborny to Foligno and Atkinson.
And at the very top of the mountain, at this very moment, are two names. Boone Jenner and Rick Nash are tied with 674 games played, a distinction that will last for just a few more hours until Jenner takes over as the franchise’s all-time leader tonight vs. Washington.
“It doesn’t seem like long ago that I was coming in as a rookie and just trying to make my way and be a part of the team,” Jenner said. “Obviously here we are 11 years later. It’s pretty special.
“I take a lot of pride in being a Blue Jacket, what it means to be a Blue Jacket. I don’t put too much thought into the milestone, but it’s definitely cool to get. I just want to keep going.”
The Blue Jackets captain could very well be the first to get to 1,000 games with the squad, but wherever he ends up, Jenner belongs in the conversation among the top players in franchise history. And the funny thing is that’s almost exactly what was expected of him when the Blue Jackets made the hard-working farm kid from Dorchester, Ontario, the 37th overall pick in the 2011 draft.
"He's going to be a captain wherever he goes," then-head coach Scott Arniel said at the time.
"He has character and hockey sense in spades,” then-general manager Scott Howson added.
All these years later, those observations have proved to be true. Jenner has impressed both with his abilities – he currently sits third all-time among Blue Jackets with 177 goals and 338 points – and his toughness. He doesn’t cheat the game, putting his full effort into every shift, going to the hard areas and sacrificing his body to get the job done.
“Blocking shots, going to the net, standing netfront, faceoffs – it's a lot of wear and tear on your body,” longtime teammate Zach Werenski said. “To do it the way he does and to play the way he does, to reach this milestone, it’s awesome.
“I think he embodies what it means to be a Blue Jacket and to play here. I think everyone has seen it since day one from him. He’s our leader. He’s done it for 11 years now. It’s awesome for him. I’m super happy for him. There’s no one who deserves it more than him.”
Also notable is the fact that for the first time, one of Nash’s long-held franchise records will fall. Now the organization’s director of player development, Nash is in charge of producing players who will hopefully make his numbers obsolete down the road, and he acknowledged that he expected some of his franchise-best totals to have fallen by now.
He never played with Jenner on the Blue Jackets – Nash's last season was 2011-12, while Jenner debuted in 2013-14 – but the two share an agent in Joe Resnick. Nash remembers hearing good things about Jenner as he was coming up the ranks, then played against him as his career continued in New York and Boston.
When he finally made it back to Columbus, he saw for himself why people raved about Jenner’s consistency, character and work ethic. As a former captain of the squad himself, Nash was proud to see the legacy continue.
“For me, it’s the way he handles himself on the ice and the way he handles himself off the ice,” Nash said. “He’s a lead by example guy. He's ingrained in the community. That means so much to me as someone who has worn that ‘C’ and has carried everything that comes along with being a leader. You know the organization is in good hands when someone like Boone is doing it.”
So far this season, Jenner is the CBJ leader with seven goals in 17 games, leaving him on pace for 34 goals on the season. He’s found a mid-career renaissance from a production standpoint, posting 26 goals a season ago and 23 in 2021-22 after five straight seasons of less than 20 tallies. In the process, he’s become one of the best netfront players in the game in addition to one of the most versatile, as he’s one of the top faceoff men in the league and can play power play and penalty kill.
It makes him a coach’s dream, something CBJ head coach Pascal Vincent has discovered since he came to Columbus three seasons ago. Like everyone who has coached Jenner, he almost has to find ways to keep him off the ice, and he’s come to appreciate what Jenner brings to the table on a daily basis.
"It’s quite an achievement,” Vincent said of the franchise record. “He's a real good pro. He's a good player, obviously, and he's playing hard minutes. The way he plays, it's hard, and for him to sustain that kind of game, he needs to have a real good lifestyle. So he's a pro, all the way around. He’s a guy that we rely on. He's a driver. He’s a great captain, obviously, and it's a good achievement for him. We're really proud of him.”
The man himself said reaching the milestone has allowed him to do some reflecting, with Jenner thinking about the 155 players he’s skated with, the support staff that allowed him to reach the mark, and the family that supported him along the way.
He’s come a long way from that farm in Ontario, yet the lessons he learned there have allowed him to reach the top.
“I think it's something I take pride in,” Jenner said. “Just go to work every day and try to make yourself better. I think that mind-set goes a long way. It goes by quick. Like I said, it doesn’t feel like too long ago I was a rookie here. You're constantly trying to get better, constantly trying to improve not only yourself but your teammates. I think you just have that approach. It's something I take pride in.”
