by Bob Hunter, The Columbus Dispatch , The Columbus Dispatch

Nash is an excellent player, obviously, or he couldn't have commanded those kinds of numbers. He is the team captain, an NHL All-Star and, hopefully, a major piece of a championship puzzle. In the near term and long term, this Hockey marriage bodes well.

Nash has given the team and this city the kind of celebrity endorsement every business covets. When NHL free agents and Blue Jackets draft picks try to decide where to spend their futures, there is no stronger signal than the one the strapping winger gave with this signing. The signal is an emphatic thumbs-up, both for the franchise and the city.

But Hockey is only part of it. Nash is about to become the kind of athlete we've never had here, one who spends most or all of his athletic career in the city, playing for a local team. Until recent years, the city's major sports stars were always associated with either Ohio State or minor-league baseball, and the Columbus parts of their careers had to be of a temporal nature. They starred here for maybe a few years, always with the idea of furthering their careers somewhere else.

Because of that, our sports icons tended to be Ohio State coaches -- Woody Hayes, Fred Taylor, Jim Tressel -- and golf legend Jack Nicklaus, who grew up here and remained in the public consciousness even though the golf tournaments he won were spread out all over the world.

Nash is different. He is 25 and has already played six seasons here. Counting the year remaining on his current contract, he is committed to play in Columbus for nine more seasons. He was just a fresh-faced kid when he burst onto the scene as the No. 1 pick in the 2002 NHL draft, and he will be approaching middle age when the contract ends.

Even the nonhockey fans among us are eventually going to discover that they have a personal relationship with Nash that they never expected. In the long term, he might be seen as a sports version of Jack Hanna.

A lot of us don't give a growl about the zoo, but we know Hanna. We can't escape from him. He's on television. He hosts events. He heads charities. He's in the news. He is part of the city, even when he's someplace else.

Things can always change, of course. A few years ago, when Blue Jackets fans dreamed of the future, they saw Nash and 2003 first-round draft pick Nikolai Zherdev on a line together, the Rick and Nik Show (as the Hockey News dubbed it on its cover) carrying the team to a resplendent NHL future.

Not only has Zherdev yet to find the kind of NHL stardom Nash has, he didn't even last long enough with the Blue Jackets to make their first playoff team. Nash's future now seems intertwined with young players such as Steve Mason, Derick Brassard, Jake Voracek and Nikita Filatov and veterans such as Antoine Vermette and R.J. Umberger.

Zherdev will likely never be more than a footnote in franchise history.

This contract ensures that Nash will never be that, even if injuries or other issues intervene. He is already the biggest star in team history, and if his future is anything at all like his past, he's going to be a Central character not only in the Blue Jackets' story, but the city's story for a long time. In a place where Ohio State football is king, he has a chance to become the most familiar face in town.

As big as the numbers are, the history that was written this past week might end up being bigger than any of us know. For a city used to cheering an ever-changing array of heroes, we've just learned that at least one of them isn't going anywhere any time soon.

For better or worse, in sickness and in health, in good times and bad, Rick Nash is one of us.

Bob Hunter is a sports columnist for The Dispatch.

bhunter@dispatch.com

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