{"id":451517,"date":"2024-09-20T11:21:19","date_gmt":"2024-09-20T15:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=451517"},"modified":"2024-09-20T11:21:19","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T15:21:19","slug":"columbus-blue-jackets-legend-added-to-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/09\/20\/columbus-blue-jackets-legend-added-to-management\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbus Blue Jackets Legend Added to Management"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/09\/19\/nhl-rumours-columbus-blue-jackets-exploring-trade-market\/\" target=\"_self\">Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> President and General Manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/w\/waddedo01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-09-20_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Don Waddell<\/a> has made a big announcement regarding management. There have been a number of additions.\u00a0 The biggest addition is <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2021\/11\/11\/rick-nash-to-have-jersey-retired-by-columbus-blue-jackets\/\" target=\"_self\">Blue Jackets legend<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/n\/nashri01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-09-20_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rick Nash<\/a>. Nash has been hired as Columbus&#8217; Director of Hockey Operations.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">BREAKING NEWS! \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n<p>Rick Nash has been named our Director of Hockey Operations!<\/p>\n<p>In addition, President and GM Don Waddell announced that Basil McRae will now serve as Director of Pro Scouting, and Zach Abdou was hired as Senior Manager of Hockey Operations.<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udcdd\u2026 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bzvG8dxfdw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/bzvG8dxfdw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BlueJacketsNHL\/status\/1837126628721168582?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">September 20, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Nash Named Director of Hockey Operations<\/h3>\n<p>Previously, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2019\/06\/13\/rick-nash-joins-blue-jackets-front-office\/\" target=\"_self\">Nash was already a member of the Blue Jackets management<\/a> for the past five seasons. In his first two years, he was a special assistant to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kekalja01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-09-20_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jarmo Kekalainen<\/a>, the general manager at the time. Since then, the 40-year-old has been the director of player development. But now, he holds the highest role of his management career with the Blue Jackets.<\/p>\n<p>He also has experience in the front office with the national team. In the 2021-22 season, he was the assistant general manager for Team Canada at the World Championships. He joined <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2019\/02\/21\/arizona-coyotes-shane-doan-jersey-retirement\/\" target=\"_self\">Coyotes legend<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/d\/doansh01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-09-20_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shane Doan<\/a> and long-time Team Canada executive <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.eliteprospects.com\/staff\/8164\/scott-salmond\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Scott Salmond<\/a>. Canada went on to <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.iihf.com\/en\/events\/2021\/wm\/gamecenter\/playbyplay\/24407\/64-fin-vs-can\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">win that World Championship<\/a>. Thanks to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/p\/paulni01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-09-20_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nick Paul<\/a> goal, it was an overtime victory in the final over Finland.<\/p>\n<h3>Other Additions to the Staff<\/h3>\n<p>Waddell has announced some other hires and promotions. <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.eliteprospects.com\/staff\/3763\/basil-mcrae\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Basil McRae<\/a> will now serve as the Director of Pro Scouting. Also, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.eliteprospects.com\/staff\/83762\/zach-abdou\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zach Abdou<\/a> has been hired as the Senior Manager of Hockey Operations.<\/p>\n<p>McRae has been a member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/09\/16\/nhl-rumours-columbus-blue-jackets-looking-for-roster-additions\/\" target=\"_self\">Blue Jackets<\/a> management for quite a while. He&#8217;s been a long-time scout for Columbus, dating back to the 2013-14 season. McRae is also a part-owner of the London Knights franchise in the OHL, along with brothers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/hunteda02.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-09-20_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dale Hunter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/h\/huntema01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-09-20_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mark Hunter<\/a>. As for Abdou, he was the Senior Manager of Hockey Operations for the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/09\/05\/2024-25-puck-drop-preview-carolina-hurricanes\/\" target=\"_self\">Carolina Hurricanes<\/a> last season and a member of their management for three total years. Waddell, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/05\/25\/a-day-after-his-resignation-waddell-reportedly-announced-new-club\/\" target=\"_self\">former president and general manager of the Hurricanes<\/a>, brought him over to join him in Columbus.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo Credit: Russell LaBounty &#8211; USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Columbus Blue Jackets President and General Manager Don Waddell has made a big announcement regarding management. There have been a number of additions.\u00a0 The biggest addition is Blue Jackets legend Rick Nash. Nash has been hired as Columbus&#8217; Director of Hockey Operations. BREAKING NEWS! \ud83d\udc40 Rick Nash has been named our Director of Hockey Operations! [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5141,"featured_media":451525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,4547,34,4548],"tags":[6117,3255,370],"class_list":["post-451517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bluejackets","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-columbus-blue-jackets-news","tag-don-waddell","tag-rick-nash"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}