Remembering some of Foligno's best moments as a Blue Jacket

Good bye, at least for now, captain.
The Blue Jackets have traded Foligno, an unrestricted free agent-to-be,
to Toronto in exchange
for a first-round draft pick in the 2021 draft as well as a fourth-rounder in 2022.
It's almost impossible sum up what Foligno has meant to the franchise in one story since he was acquired ahead of the 2012-13 season from Ottawa. He's been a valuable piece of the on-ice puzzle, playing 599 games and totaling 142 goals, 192 assists and 334 points, all of which rank third in franchise history. He's been a leader for the team, serving as the sixth full-time captain of the team since the 2015-16 season and earning NHL awards for leadership. And he's been named the team's Community MVP three times for a variety of initiatives.

Simply put, he's been the face of the franchise on and off the ice. We'll have more on this trade and its impact in the days to come, but Foligno's contributions on the ice have been integral to the team's development into a perennial playoff contender. Here are some of his top on-ice moments as a Blue Jacket.
His first goal:It took Foligno less than one period to score his first-ever goal with the Blue Jackets. With the team down 1-0 in the 2013 season opener vs. Nashville, Foligno took a spot at the front of the net on the power play and tipped a shot by Fedor Tyutin past goalie Pekka Rinna. The Blue Jackets would go on to win that game by a 3-2 score in a shootout, a stunning result considering the offseason trade of Rick Nash and the Preds' mastery of Columbus in the Music City.
"That was kind of nice to be able to join the team and have that success early on," Foligno
said in January
as part of our Game of the Month feature. "I remember how excited a lot of the guys were that had been here to beat that team because it wasn't the easiest thing to do."

The Blue Jackets would go on to shock the NHL world that year, coming within a tiebreaker of making the playoffs during a red-hot finish, in a season that set the stage for the success to come.
The playoff winner: If you ask just about anyone affiliated with the Blue Jackets, this is the goal that comes to mind. While Columbus didn't make the playoffs in Foligno's first season in Columbus, they did so the next season, with Foligno chipping in 18 goals and 39 points in his first full season with the Blue Jackets.
The team had yet to win a playoff game in franchise history to that point, but took care of that in Game 2 of the series against Pittsburgh, capturing a 4-3 double-overtime victory over the Pens on Matt Calvert's winner. But Foligno didn't play in that game because of injury, drawing back into the lineup in Game 3 at home.
Columbus lost that game, but everyone remembers Game 4. The team clawed out of an early 3-0 hole and tied the score on Brandon Dubinsky's goal in the final minute, then just 2:49 into overtime, Foligno made history. He took a feed from RJ Umberger, skated into the zone along the left side and let go a wrist shot that fooled goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, slipping it past his glove and sending Nationwide Arena into hysterics after the first home playoff win in team history. Foligno's two-legged slide up the ice before being mobbed by his teammates will forever be part of CBJ lore.

Another big playoff tally:The Blue Jackets were major underdogs going into the 2019 playoffs against Tampa Bay. Led by Hart Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov and a host of other stars including Victory Hedman, Steven Stamkos, Brayden Point and Andrei Vasilevskiy, the Lightning had won 62 games during the regular season, tying the NHL record.
The Bolts were easily the favorite to win the Stanley Cup and did little to dissuade that opinion in the first period of Game 1, scoring three times to take a 3-0 lead. The start staggered the Jackets but didn't kill them, as the team found its footing early in the second period, but Columbus needed a goal to truly start the comeback.
Enter Foligno. Josh Anderson broke up a pass in the Tampa Bay offensive zone to send the puck the other way, and Foligno quickly jumped on it for a breakaway. Never one for subtlety, Foligno elected to blast a shot as he got in on goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy and beat him clean on the break, making it a 3-1 game and giving the Jackets some much-needed momentum. Columbus went on to score three times in the third period to take a 4-3 lead, kicking off the stunning sweep of the Lightning that captured the imagination of the capital city and the attention of the sports world.

Between the legs: While Foligno's game has been built around tenacity and toughness, he has no shortage of skill as well (no one scores 203 NHL goals and plays 950 games without it).
Rarely did Foligno show that skill off as well as he did when he tallied a between-the-legs goal, one of the top tallies of the season, on Feb. 20 of last year against the Philadelphia Flyers.
With Columbus already up 1-0 about halfway through the first period of that crucial game down the stretch, Foligno took a pass from Oliver Bjorkstrand and tried to chip the puck past the Flyers defenseman. He was able to get past the blueliner but couldn't control the puck until right before he got to goalie Brian Elliott.
Elliott went for the poke-check, but Foligno seemed to sense it, pulling the puck back between his legs and tucking it past the goalie on his right as the momentum pulled him to the left.

It was a sensational goal, one of the best Foligno scored as Blue Jacket. But what happened later in that game also seemed to sum up the captain, as Foligno took a puck to the fac that cracked his visor. He would go on to play the next few weeks with two black eyes, all because the team needed him.
In the end, that was Nick Foligno. He could score. He could fight. He could lead. Really, he could do it all. Good luck in Toronto, Nick.