The NHL Needs More Rick Nash

Why isn’t the NHL marketing the hell out of Rich Nash? It’s a simple question—but I’m still looking for a simple answer. In a world where stars play such a huge role in selling their respective sports, why is a guy like Nash still relatively unknown in the United States? While I have to hunt and search for reasons against promoting the talented power forward, there are plenty more reasons to publicize the man.

There’s no way we can ignore the first point: he scores goals like very few players in the NHL. He has almost 200 goals in 6 seasons in the NHL. In his 2nd full season in the league, he amassed 41 goals (quite an accomplishment pre-lockout) en route to winning the Rocket Richard Trophy. Just check out the stats that he’s compiled in his young NHL career:

In a league that loves to promote their 1st overall picks, he was the #1 pick by the Blue Jackets in 2002. You don’t believe me? How long before we have a John Tavares commercial to join Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin (also #1 overall picks). Of course, it would help if he played on the east coast and in the Eastern Conference.

Can you imagine if this happened in Boston and not Phoenix?

Forget the actual play on the ice for a second—he’s the kind of guy that you can put in front of a camera and get people interested. For years we’ve heard that one of hockey’s biggest marketing problems is the amount of Europeans and their inability to connect with the common fan in North America. Here’s a guy that has a good personality and the right amount of charisma to help sell the game. The man speaks English—that helps when looking for sound-bytes in Canada and the United States.

As one of our female readers pointed out, he’s easy on the eyes. I think that’s a nice, classy way of saying… well… things that aren’t as nice or classy. I’m a happily married man that loves the fact that he’s married to a FEMALE, but this just seems like another reason to market the guy. It can’t hurt, can it? He looks better than that mouth-breather Malkin. I can say that and still be comfortable in my heterosexuality.

Besides the fact that he’s one of the best power forwards in the game, he’s also a good guy. At the NHL Awards extravaganza last month, Nash won the NHL’s Foundation Player Award. The Foundation Award is annually presented to:

“An NHL player who applies the core values of hockey – commitment, perseverance and teamwork – to enrich the lives of people in his community.”

I’m always skeptical with awards of this nature—donating money to charitable causes and helping out in the community aren’t things that can be measured. But if Nash won the award, then he’s probably doing things the right way. Not a bad role model, eh?

As for reasons why he ISN’T being marketed, I have one word for you: Columbus. I don’t think the people on Madison Avenue (or the people in the NHL offices on Avenue of the Americas) could find Columbus, OH if they had a Tom-Tom, MapQuest and a Rand McNally. They think its some city where Christopher lived and sports media executives think every square inch of the city is filled by a giant horseshoe.

The only other reason that I can think of for him not being promoted is that he’s not on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Lately, the American media doesn’t even acknowledge players if they don’t play FOR the Penguins (Crosby, Malkin) or are RIVALS of the Penguins (Ovechkin, Red Wings, Flyers etc.). At least the Canadian media can focus on 6 other teams! But look at this highlight and tell me that we shouldn’t be focusing on this:

We always hear how we want our athletes to be as loyal to the team as we are as fans. With that in mind, take a look at how his recent contract negotiations went down. The Blue Jackets were able to start talking to him on July 1st about a contract extension. It only took 3 days for him to sign his 8 year, $62.5 million contract. He would have been completely within his rights to test the unrestricted free agent waters—to see if a team with a traditional fan base and more money came calling. But he said that he had found a home in Columbus and made the decision that he wanted to stay there for the majority of his career.

“It was pretty easy because Columbus wanted to get everything done and I wanted to stay in Columbus… I had a good two months to think about it and talk with a lot of family and friends. I just went over my options over possible places I could go and at the end of the day after speaking with Scott (Jackets’ GM Scott Howson) and the ownership at Columbus it was just the right fit.” –Rick Nash

It’s easy to say that he stayed for the money, but he made the decision to stay in Columbus before he found out what he was worth on the open market. Plenty of guys say that they are loyal to their team, but Nash’s actions speak louder than words. He said he wanted to stay in Columbus and be their long-term captain and leader—then he went out and put his money where his mouth is.

When I think of players that I’d like to see marketed, I usually go to the “8 year old test.” If I had an 8 year old in elementary school, would I want them to come home and say ____ is his favorite player? If my child came home and said, “Daddy, I want to be just like Sean Avery,” I’m not very confident that I’d be supportive. But the more and more I hear about Rick Nash—that’s the kind of guy that my child could look up to (as much as athletes can be looked up to).

So that brings us back to our original question: why the hell isn’t the NHL marketing him? He’s been the face of his franchise since he arrived in Ohio seven years ago. Maybe Rick Nash just needs to get traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs or the New York Rangers. All I know is that for every 20 Sidney Crosby or Alexander Ovechkin mentions, we could mix in something about Rick Nash.

He’s a great player. He’s a good guy. I’m not sure how it would hurt…