Jackets 20: Geoff Sanderson lit the lamp

Welcome to Jackets 20, a series which celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Columbus Blue Jackets by profiling 20 of the most important players from the first two decades. Today, we remember the first great goal scorer in franchise history, Geoff Sanderson.

Pre-history

Before the Blue Jackets entered the league, to call me a casual hockey fan would have been overstatement. I liked the Mighty Ducks films and I played a lot of NHL 94 on the Sega Genesis, but that’s it. As a result, none of the inaugural season Jackets were known to me, and prior to this point I had not done a deep dive into their pre-Columbian careers.

I remember Geoff Sanderson as a great goal scorer here, and this had been a…