After spending the last 16 seasons in professional hockey, including a dozen years and more than 600 games in the NHL, one of Kamloops’ greatest hockey exports has called it a career.
Riley Nash's decision comes after he missed the entirety of the 2024-25 season recovering from a variety of knee injuries suffered the previous year with the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack.
“It’s official — I’m retiring,” Nash told Castanet.
“It is definitely something weird to say and it hasn’t really sunk in yet, even though I basically had all of last year away from the rink, but this year will still be weird. This is all I’ve done and focused on for the past 30 years, but now is the time to end this chapter or book and look at what’s next.”
Nash said he feels good about the move.
“With three wonderful young kids and the way my body has behaved over the past few years, it was time to take a step back as an older guy and let others chase their dream the same way I did,” he said.
"I consider myself very fortunate to have played in front of my kids over the last few years. They helped me regain the passion and love for the sport I had as a kid. Now was the right time to step away.”
The 36-year-old's resume includes 940 professional regular season games at both the NHL and AHL level, putting up 143 goals and 226 assists for 369 points. He also appeared in 77 postseason games as a pro, tallying 11 goals and 26 points.
His final game as a pro was on Dec. 9, 2023, as a member of the New York Rangers.
Nash’s 628 NHL games played places him sixth among Tournament Capital products, behind Mark Recchi (1,652), Doug Lidster (897), Bert Marshall (898), Tim Watters (741) and Stu Grimson (729). He sits third in goals (63), fifth in assists (113) and fifth in career points (176).
Nash was born in Consort, Alta, in 1989. His hockey dreams did not begin to take shape until after his family moved to Kamloops the following year.
As a teenager, Nash turned down an opportunity to play in the WHL to pursue the U.S. college route. He put up 84 points in 55 games for the BCHL’s Salmon Arm Silverbacks in 2006-07.
That was not only good enough to earn an Ivy League scholarship, it also resulted in his name being called by the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the 2007 NHL Draft.
Nash took his talents to Cornell University in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference, where he teamed up with older brother Brendon Nash, who he had also followed to Salmon Arm. He scored 37 goals and 102 points in 102 career games spread out over three seasons for the Big Red.
Brendon, who went on to have his own seven-year career in professional hockey, said it was sweet to play alongside his brother.
“It was a dream come true to play at a high level and it was made even sweeter to do it with my brother,” he said.
"We grew up on the driveways and in the rinks together, so to progress through junior and into pro hockey at the same time was something not a lot of brothers get the chance to do."
The Oilers traded Nash’s rights to the Carolina Hurricanes in 2010. After a full season with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers, he made his NHL debut on Dec. 21, 2011, against the Phoenix Coyotes and his teenage mentor — former Kamloops Blazer Shane Doan.
Nash said he started training with Doan at the age of 12.
“I tried my best to keep up with him, but I could obviously never match him,” he said.
"Then I got to the NHL and I looked up at the face off dot and he’s smiling — that was a pretty cool welcome to the NHL moment. But that quickly went away because I knew he was competing as hard as possible against me and once again I had to try and beat him.”
Doan said he remembers it, too.
"That first game of his was so cool for me, as someone who first met him as a young kid and then watched him turn himself into an NHL player, and then to be a part of that moment was a pretty unique experience,” he said.
"When you watched him in the league and competed against him, you knew he was going to stick around for a while because he had such a high hockey IQ."
It took a couple more years of minor league grinding for Nash to become an NHL regular. He played 32 games for the ‘Canes in 2012-13, highlighted by his first NHL goal. Carolina failed to qualify for the postseason in each of his five years with the club, during which time he put up 81 points in 242 games.
Nash became an unrestricted free agent after the 2015-16 NHL season. He landed a two-year deal with the Boston Bruins.
It was in Boston where Nash enjoyed his most productive season in the NHL, a 41-point campaign in 2017-18.
The Bruins advanced to the postseason both years Nash was there, giving him his first taste of NHL playoff hockey.
“There’s nothing like the Stanley Cup Playoffs,” he said. "Anytime you get to the playoffs and get to go up against the best of the best and elevate your game, trying to achieve my lifelong dream, nothing else compares.”
Nash turned that 41-point season into a US$8.25-million payday, inking a three-year deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets in the summer of 2018. His defensively sound game helped Columbus reach the playoffs the first two seasons he was there.
He was traded to Toronto during the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season but only suited up in a couple of playoff games for the Maple Leafs.
That summer, Nash signed a one-year deal with the Winnipeg Jets, kicking off a roller-coaster of a year that saw him bounce on waivers between Winnipeg, Arizona and Tampa Bay, eventually finishing the season back in the AHL. But he got to suit up for the Lightning on their run to the 2022 Stanley Cup Final.
He said it was "an eye-opening experience."
"I kept working, tried to stay positive and was fortunate to find myself in a great locker room at the end of it," he said.
"I got to play in the Stanley Cup Final and have a lot of my family share that journey with me. It was a memorable journey after all that happened.”
Nash spent his final two years as a pro with the New York Rangers organization. He signed with the club in the summer of 2023 after putting up a career high 59 points as an alternate captain with the Checkers. He started the next season with the Wolf Pack, the Rangers' AHL affiliate, before injury caught up with him.
His contract with New York expired on Canada Day.
Nash said he enjoyed the end of his career. He had taken on a leadership role in Hartford, where he played alongside former Blazer netminder Dylan Garand. He said he considered going to Europe but decided he was happier in the American League.
"Having my kids around for the year in Charlotte and then playing near my wife’s hometown in Hartford with her family around was a much better scenario," he said.
With no immediate plans other than tee times and family dinners, Nash said he is going to take some time to figure out his next move.
“I certainly consider myself lucky to play with my kids every day, but I’m looking forward to figuring out what comes next,” he said.
"I’m grateful that I have the time and flexibility to explore my options, whether that is finishing my business degree or dusting off the resume that I haven’t had to look at for the past 15 years.”
Nash got married in 2019. He and his wife welcomed their third child earlier this year. They live in Greenwich, Conn.
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