Nick Foligno: “Columbus has a place in my heart forever”

You can take Nick Foligno out of Columbus, but you can’t take the Columbus out of Nick Foligno.

The Blue Jackets’ sixth-ever full-time captain is headed to Toronto in of a trade that netted the Blue Jackets two draft picks including a first-rounder, part of the business of the game that happens at the deadline when a team knows its postseason odds are slim.

And of course Foligno is excited for the chance to chase the Stanley Cup on a Toronto team that has accumulated some of the top young talent in the game.

But that doesn’t make it any easier to leave the capital city after nine seasons and 599 games. The latter total, not to mention his 142 goals, 192 assists and 324 points, is third in team history, and no one has had more passion or pride in wearing the union blue.

As for what it meant to him to be the team captain throughout the most successful stretch in team history, Foligno summed it up thusly: “I don’t think I can put that into words.” 

“I think it’s just too emotional right now,” he said. “It’s hard to think about it already. It’s too fresh. But listen, I know how fortunate I was to be a captain of, first of all, a great group of guys. A core group that I think of like Boone (Jenner) and Cam (Atkinson) and Jonesey (Seth Jones) and Z (Zach Werenski) was coming on, and you have Oliver Bjorkstrand now and then Gus Nyquist, and the list goes on and on as you keep going through it. The guys I got to play with and lead, man, I was just fortunate to be in a room with guys like that. 

“Also, the fan base. I think Columbus is an underrated city and doesn’t get its due in how avid hockey fans they are and how much they care about this team. I felt that every time I stepped on the ice, and I tried to reciprocate that and make them know that I cared about being their captain. I cared about how they felt about their organization. The pride that I felt to be the captain of this team is something I’ll remember forever, and I hope people felt that as well.” 

As mentioned above, while plenty of goals and assists were had in his Columbus tenure — and there were a lot of those, including some of the most important tallies in franchise history — the biggest thing that Foligno helped bring to Columbus was legitimacy. 

The son of a 15-year NHL veteran, Foligno arrived in Columbus in July 2012 in a trade with Ottawa for defenseman Marc Methot. The franchise he entered was in the midst of flux, coming off a season when it finished last in points in the 30-team NHL and fired its coach midway through the season. Within weeks of his acquisition, Foligno saw the Blue Jackets trade franchise player Rick Nash to the New York Rangers for players, prospects and a draft pick. 

But it didn’t take long for things to turn around. After the end of the last NHL lockout, Foligno and the Blue Jackets took the ice and he scored in his first period with the team in a surprising win at longtime nemesis Nashville. By the end of that season, the Blue Jackets were the hottest team in the NHL, missing out on the franchise’s second-ever playoff berth by a mere tiebreaker. 

A year later, there was no near-miss. Columbus made the postseason and Foligno notched one of the biggest goals in franchise history, scoring in overtime of Game 4 of the series with Pittsburgh to ice the first-ever CBJ home playoff win and tie the series. 

While things stumbled a bit from there — Columbus lost the last two games of that series, then lived through difficult 2015 and ’16 campaigns — Foligno was named the team captain in the summer of 2015 and overcame the initial skepticism of head coach John Tortorella to become a beloved leader. He’s been the face of the franchise over the past seasons, including four campaigns in a row in which the Blue Jackets made the playoffs and the first postseason series win in franchise history two years ago vs. Tampa Bay. 

“When I got here, we were a team that didn’t have a ton of respect and I think that was something that I wanted to be able to bring,” he said. “In turn, (the fans) lifted you up, and I think that’s something I’ll forever be grateful to Columbus for. The way they supported our team as we got going here is just incredible. We got to almost share every new experience together. …  

“Columbus has a place in my heart forever — forever and ever. That’s how our family feels. It’s going to take a little more time to have to reflect on, but it’s a place that everyone knows is near and dear to my heart.” 

Unfortunately, the trade became likely over the past few days as a CBJ season that began with such high hopes stared down the unfortunate reality that a fifth straight playoff appearance was an uphill climb.  

With a number of new faces on the team, including an early-season trade of former first-round pick and No. 1 center Pierre-Luc Dubois to Winnipeg for Patrik Laine and Jack Roslovic, the Blue Jackets never quite found their game this year and are 2-8-1 in their last 11 games. That put the team seven points behind Nashville for the last playoff spot in the division, and with season-ending injuries suffered by Riley Nash, Boone Jenner and Zach Werenski last week, the writing was on the wall.  

With that in mind, Foligno talked with general manager Jarmo Kekalainen over the past few days about his status with the understanding that he was on the trade block. 

“You can kind see the direction we were headed unfortunately here in Columbus,” Foligno said. “I really appreciate Jarmo allowing me to go and chase my dream of winning a Cup with a team I feel has a great opportunity to do that. I have a ton of respect for him and the whole process we went through. That’s something I’ll never forget.” 

As for this season with the Jackets, Foligno said. “What’s disappointing is that there’s a ton of good players and we couldn’t find a way to get in that mix and put it all together this year for whatever reason. I guess I’ll say if we knew, we would have fixed it. It’s going to take some time, I’m sure, to dissect that, but for me I have to be honest. My mind-set shifts now to what I can do to help Toronto.” 

Foligno will be no stranger to the Maple Leafs, as his family not only has a home in Sudbury, Ontario, but his father Mike played four of his NHL seasons in Toronto, wearing the same No. 71 as Nick will wear for the team. Mike was a part of the Leafs’ 1993 team that reached the conference final thanks to dramatic series wins over Detroit and St. Louis before a Game 7 loss to Wayne Gretzky and Los Angeles prevented a Toronto-Montreal Stanley Cup Final. 

“He was pretty excited,” Nick Foligno said of informing his father about the trade. “I have to admit it was nice to have that phone call with him and tell him there is going to be another 71 flying around the ice.” 

Foligno will now get the chance to win a Cup with a team that is in first place in the North Division and has plenty of firepower in such names as Auston Matthews and Mitchell Marner, not to mention veterans like Jason Spezza and Joe Thornton. 

Then, when the season ends, Foligno will be an unrestricted free agent and could sign with any NHL team. Could a Columbus return be in the cards over the summer? 

“That’s always open,” Foligno said. “That’s something with no guarantee of what is going to happen in the summer. That’s an option that’s on the table, and obviously it’s no secret, but for me right now … I’m full steam ahead with the Toronto Maple Leafs.”