Gretzky, Crosby, Iginla, Marchand and more have a very special message for Rick Nash.

The Columbus Blue Jackets held a very special event on Saturday night both for the history of their relatively young National Hockey League franchise and for former star forward Rick Nash. Saturday night marked the first time the franchise had ever retired an NHL jersey when they raised Nash's #61 to the rafters in what was a beautiful ceremony, and a well deserved honor for Nash who served as the team's franchise player and captain for the majority of his career in the league.

If you didn't see the jersey being raised, I highly recommend you check out the short clip below courtesy of the NHL:

It was a huge moment for both Nash and the franchise and it was one that was recognized around the league by former teammates and former players who had the opportunity to watch Nash play the game, and unsurprisingly many of them went out of their way to share some kind words ahead of the ceremony.

Among those was NHL legend Wayne Gretzky who had the following to say about Nash's big moment:

"What a great honor it is for me to say a few words about Rick Nash," began Gretzky on Saturday. "What a tremendous hockey player, what a great person, so well deserving of this night. You made hockey so much better and bigger in Columbus. Congratulations to you and your family, well done."

Gretzky was far from the only figure in the NHL that had some nice words to share however. The Boston Bruins also put out a fantastic tribute video to Nash to commemorate his big night with several of their players, including Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and Nick Foligno, all sharing some kind words for the former NHL star.

The Blue Jackets of course had a video of their own and it featured a plethora of NHL stars past and present who had some nice things to say about Nash. Among those were Joe Thornton, Jarome Iginla, Sidney Crosby, and many more.