Welcome to LWOS’ Summer Hockey Series, Best of the Rest. Plenty of sites do a version of a 30 greats in 30 days series, but this year we are doing something a little bit different. We want to look at the best player from each team who is not in the Hockey Hall Of Fame. In order to do this there are some rules. First the player must have been a significant part of this franchise (franchises include their time in a previous city… see Winnipeg/Atlanta) and must be retired for at least 3 years, making them Hall of Fame eligible. To see all the articles in the series, check out the homepage here.
There’s probably no team in the NHL less worthy of having a Hall of Fame eligible player than the Columbus Blue Jackets. In their 13 NHL seasons, they’ve finished with an above .500 record just thrice, and made the playoffs only twice. The franchise’s early ineptitude, combined with it’s relatively recent inclusion into the NHL, makes finding a Hall Of Fame eligible player who made a significant impact with the team difficult.
Especially when you consider that the one true superstar in the history of the Jackets, Rick Nash, the all time club leader in goals, assists, points, and numerous other offensive categories, isn’t available for consideration, the prospect of finding a Hall of Famer becomes even more difficult. However, there is one player who was an important team leader in the early days of the franchise and who still ranks highly on the team’s all-time scoring lists. And no, it’s not David Vyborny, who may be the greatest Jacket of all-time not named Nash, because the ageless wonder continues to ply his trade over in the Czech Republic.
Columbus Blue Jackets – Geoff Sanderson
Drafted in the second round, 36th overall by the Hartford Whalers in 1990, after a brilliant 112 point season and a Memorial Cup with the Swift Current Broncos in the CHL, Sanderson made an immediate impact in the NHL. He netted 34 points in 64 games as a rookie, and followed that up with a monster 46 goal, 89 point sophomore campaign in 1992-93. Sanderson would add another 40-goal season with the Whalers, plus two more 30-goal seasons, establishing himself as a solid NHL sniper, before he started bouncing around the NHL for a few years.
He moved with the Whalers to Carolina, then had an unproductive 9-game cup of coffee with the Vancouver Canucks before heading to Buffalo. While with the Sabres, Sanderson was a shadow of his former self, scoring only 29 goals in two and half seasons, and was subsequently left open to the expansion draft in 2000.
He was taken 23rd overall in that draft by the Jackets (which also featured the Minnesota Wild vying for players left exposed by every team in the NHL), and he was the first forward that Columbus chose. For Sanderson, it would be an opportunity to rediscover his game in a new environment, albeit the environment of an expansion franchise full of the worst players from other NHL teams that was destined to be unsuccessful from the start.
Yes, the Jackets were bad in their inaugural 2000-2001 season, but could have finished worse than 13th in the West if not for the exploits of Sanderson. He led the club in both goals (30, including 7 game-winners) and points (56) during his best season since 1996-97. At 28 years old, Sanderson was already a leader for Columbus in the locker room as well, and he would sport an “A” on his sweater for the duration of his first tenure with the club.
However, the following season was a troubling one for both Sanderson and the franchise, as Sanderson was limited to only 11 goals in 42 games because of injury, and the Jackets would tumble to last place with what is still their worst-ever record (22-47-8-5). He was able to bounce back the next season though, netting a team-leading 34 goals as well as 67 points, his third 67-point season in the NHL (which tied his second-best output in a single season, behind only his huge 89-point year in Hartford).
2003-04 wasn’t as kind to Sanderson however. He was again struggling, and new offensive leaders such as Nash and Nikolai Zherdev began to emerge for the club. After only 13 goals and 29 points in 67 games, Sanderson was shipped off to Vancouver for another brief stint with the Canucks at the trade deadline, though he had yet to play his final game in a Blue Jackets jersey.
He spent the 2004-05 lockout in Switzerland, but would return to play with Columbus to open the 2005-06 season. Sadly, he would last just two scoreless games with the Jackets before being dealt on October 8th to the Phoenix Coyotes, finally marking the end of his tenure with the Columbus organization.
He followed up a somewhat productive (25 goals in 75 games) year in Phoenix with a season in Philadelphia and another season, his last, as a member of the Edmonton Oilers in 2007-08, though he never again matched the highs of his few years in Columbus. He retired at the age of 35 with 355 goals, 345 assists and 700 points in 1104 career NHL games.
Where does that put Sanderson in the argument for the Hall of Fame? Far from it. While his career numbers are nothing to scoff at, they are far and away below what is expected of a Hall-of-Famer; he never scored 50 goals in a season, he never hit 100 points, he finished below the 500-goal and 1000-point thresholds, he never played in an NHL all-star game, and he never won an individual NHL award (his highest league accolade was 7th in voting at the center position for the year-end all-star ballot in 1993-94). Oh, and he never won a Stanley Cup either.
However, his six 30-goal season are a nice feather in his cap, as are his 1000+ games. He also played well on the international stage, winning two gold medals for Canada at the IIHF World Championships in 1994 and 1997, while posting 17 points in 27 senior-level international matches.
One could say that even if Sanderson were considered for induction in the Hall, it wouldn’t be as a member of the Jackets, but rather as a Whaler, considering some of his best seasons were in Hartford. I’d argue though that Sanderson was in integral part of the formative years for the Jackets, and an unquestioned team leader in the early days.
His 88 goals with the Jackets are still 4th on the franchise’s all-time list, and his 168 points are 6th. In fact, he’s still top four in numerous offensive categories for Columbus, including power play goals (34), game-winning goals (12), and shots (795). His goals per game (0.34) as a Jacket are second only to Nash. Likewise, his 34 goals in 2002-03 remain the highest total by any player not named Nash and his 7 game-winning goals during Columbus’ inaugural season remain a club record (tied with Nash).
He stacks up quite nicely compared to some of the best offensive players in club history. If the Best of the Rest criteria is a player who made a big impact as a member of the franchise, there is no disputing Sanderson’s contribution to the Blue Jackets. He may not be Hall of Fame worthy, but nobody save Nash comes even close anyways. However, he’s certainly the best of the rest in Columbus.
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