In the Columbus Dispatch, Aaron Portzline speaks with some former players and current analysts about the kind of player that some team will get in Rick Nash.
Former Ranger Eddie Olcyzk says, “Teams should be licking their chops to get this guy in their lineup. He has a chance to be a top-three goal-scorer in the league. Somebody is going to hit a grand slam with this guy.”
Ray Ferraro, another former Ranger said of Nash, “This is a guy who dominated games, who put on a show. And I think he’s settled into a comfort zone, now that he knows that still wasn’t good enough to win.”
In terms of tiers, former Islanders captain Michael Peca said that Nash was in a tier just below players like Claude Giroux and Corey Perry.
At At ESPN.com, Pierre LeBrun writes that Columbus GM Scott Howson is waiting to hit a home run in his trade for Rick Nash, but right now is only able to hit doubles with the offers he has gotten.
LeBrun writes, “I know in the conversations I’ve had with Howson since last February’s trade deadline came and went without a deal, he has remained consistent about one thing: even if it takes until August, September, heck, December, he would wait until he got the deal he wanted.”
He thinks that the Rangers are the most natural trading partner due to their abundance of young assets.
According to Darren Dreger, joining the Rangers, Flyers and Sharks on Rick Nash’s trade list, are the Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins and possibly the Carolina Hurricanes.
Dreger thinks that Howson will be able to hit a “home run” with one of the teams in that group.
Pittsburgh, Detroit and Carolina all want after either Ryan Suter, Zach Parise or both.
Adam Rotter: This is where it gets interesting. Pittsburgh was all in on getting Parise and Nash would be in a great, no pressure, position to be the third guy on the Penguins. Detroit seems to want to make a big move but they need a defenseman to help transition to the post Nick Lidstrom era. Carolina is the team to worry about if you want Nash. They seem willing to do everything they can to make themselves into a contender and if Nash is willing to accept a move, I think he ends up in Carolina.
He adds, “Told there are lots of ways #NYR could get this done w/o Kreider, Stepan or McDonagh. As noted, McDonagh does not make sense as centerpiece.”
It has been reported multiple teams by Larry Brooks that Columbus is asking for at least two of the three players.
Darren Dreger tweets at Portzline and says, “CBJ should let the NYR know that. Multiple scenarios have been pitched by NY and turned away.”
Adam Rotter: This is gamesmanship and two sides trying to tell two different stories. The Rangers end of things is saying that Columbus is being unreasonable and won’t get off their demand for Kreider, McDonagh, Stepan. The Columbus side is basically saying, we are willing to make a trade, it’s the Rangers who are unwilling. Both sides are trying to blame the other and it’s probably a little bit of both.
In the Columbus Dispatch, Aaron Portzline writes that many people are starting to think of Rick Nash as good but not a great player based on how his statistics have lined up over the past couple of seasons.
Portzline notes that Nash is one of four players, along with Alex Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk and Jarome Iginla to score 30 goals a season in each of the last five seasons.
He adds, “But the sense among NHL executives is that Nash will return to his dominating ways when he gets traded, that the weight of the franchise had taken a toll on him.”
Adam Rotter:I always remember Nash as a force in 2010 Olympics for Team Canada and I think that is the player Nash will be when he is traded. He will be sent a team where he won’t be the only big player and will only need to be part of the team and not the entire team. If you acquire Nash you are getting an elite goal scorer, but is it worth the cost in terms of assets and salary cap space he would take up?
3:54PM: According to Aaron Portzline of the Columbus Dispatch, the Flyers are definitely on Rick Nash’s list and are very involved in talks with Columbus. He also notes that losing JVR is not the end of the Flyers’ pursuit.
With the Rangers, Portzline writes he can’t confirm CBJ are asking for Chris Kreider, Derek Stepan or Ryan McDonagh, but does say many proposals have been thrown around.
He adds that Columbus would trade him to Detroit, but is unclear what their package would be.
On the Sharks, he adds “You just know San Jose is in the weeds. The Sharks have an offer on the table. It could be sweetened.”
In the Columbus Dispatch, Aaron Portzline speaks with some former players and current analysts about the kind of player that some team will get in Rick Nash.
According to Darren Dreger, joining the Rangers, Flyers and Sharks on Rick Nash’s trade list, are the Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins and possibly the Carolina Hurricanes.
In the Columbus Dispatch, Aaron Portzline writes that many people are starting to think of Rick Nash as good but not a great player based on how his statistics have lined up over the past couple of seasons.
