With eight days left before opening night at Nationwide Arena, jersey No. 8 has a pretty deep Blue Jackets timeline attached to it. The number has belonged to scorers, defensemen, short-term additions, and one current franchise pillar who is piling up records at a dizzying pace.
The list starts with Geoff Sanderson, who wore it from 2001 to 2006 after being drafted by Hartford in 1990. He skated in 268 games for Columbus and finished with 168 points, including a 30-goal, 56-point season in the franchise’s first year.
Sanderson gave the Blue Jackets some real life in those early days, and he remains the only player in team history to score four goals in a game. He was also the first player in franchise history to record five points in a game.
Sanderson retired in 2008 after 1,100 games and 700 points, and last season he was a pro scout for the New Jersey Devils.
Jan Hejda followed, wearing No. 8 from 2008 to 2010. Drafted by the Buffalo Sabres in 2003, he arrived in Columbus in 2007 after one year with the Edmonton Oilers.
Hejda played four seasons with the Blue Jackets and appeared in 302 games, posting 11 goals and 67 points on the blue line. When free agency opened in 2011, he moved on to the Colorado Avalanche and stayed there until 2015.
He later signed a PTO with the Lake Erie Monsters in December of 2015, was released in January of 2016, and retired.
Ulf Samuelsson - listed as Upshall in the source - wore the number briefly after being traded from the Phoenix Coyotes on February 28, 2011. He played 21 games for Columbus and recorded seven points, then went on to play for the Florida Panthers and St.
Louis Blues. In 2019, he headed to Europe for a single season in Switzerland.
Maksim Mayorov had No. 8 in 2012. Drafted by Columbus in 2007, he played 22 games for the Jackets and totaled 11 points.
He never appeared in another game for Columbus. Mayorov left for Russia in 2012, played there until retiring in 2021, and is now an amateur scout for the Washington Capitals.
Nathan Horton wore the number in 2014 after signing with the Blue Jackets in 2013. He played 36 games and produced 19 points before a back issue forced him into medical retirement.
His No. 8 season also carries one of the strangest footnotes in NHL history: on March 10, 2014, against the Dallas Stars, Horton scored in the first period to put Columbus ahead 1-0. Play stopped when Dallas center Rich Peverley collapsed on the bench, and the game was restarted from the beginning on April 9, 2014.
Horton was unavailable for the restart because of an injury, but his original goal still counted in the official stats, making him the only NHL player known to score in a game in which he did not play.
And then there’s Zach Werenski, who has worn No. 8 since 2017 and is still adding to the book. Drafted by Columbus in 2015, Werenski has become the best defenseman in Blue Jackets history.
Injuries slowed him at points, but last season he stayed healthy, played at an elite level, and won his first Norris Trophy. He already owns nearly every major defenseman record in the franchise, including games played, goals, assists, points, PPG, most goals in a game, most assists in a game, and most points in a game.
The chase isn’t over, though. Werenski enters the coming season with 465 career points, 82 behind Rick Nash’s franchise record of 547.
He has posted 82 points and 81 points over the last two seasons, so that mark looks very much in reach. He also needs one more overtime goal to pass Seth Jones, who has eight, and he already holds the team record for overtime assists with 14.
He is tied with Jones for overtime points at 21.
There are more marks within reach, too. Werenski is tied with Seth Jones and Ivan Provorov for the longest goal streak by a defenseman at three, and he is tied with RJ Umberger for the longest assist streak at eight.
In multi-point games, he sits at 105 career games with two or more points, well behind Rick Nash’s 137 but close enough to make that one interesting. He is tied with Artemi Panarin at five career four-plus-point games, and he is part of a seven-player tie for one five-plus-point game.
For multi-assist games of four or more, Panarin owns the record with three, while Werenski has two.
There are still questions about whether Werenski will be in Columbus long term, but for now he has said he wants to be a Blue Jacket and appears set to be back next season. If that holds, the number 8 page in franchise history could keep getting rewritten fast.
In Other News...
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A preseason game is supposed to be about getting work in, sorting out lines and building toward opening night, but Columbus meeting with Buffalo left the Sabres dealing with a lot more than a box score. The Blue Jackets win has now taken on a more uncomfortable edge for Buffalo, which has already had to absorb some early injury fallout from the matchup.
Buffalo heads into the next stretch of its exhibition schedule against the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins with two defensemen suddenly at the center of concern. Mattias Samuelsson is out week-to-week, while Olen Zellweger is in concussion protocol, turning a routine preseason checkpoint into an early test of the Sabres depth and their ability to keep moving through the schedule. [Read more 🡒]