After months of asking for the sky, moon, stars, sun, and the next galaxy over for Rick Nash, Columbus GM Scott Howson makes a deal with the New York Rangers to send Nash to the Big Apple. While everyone thought that the Rangers would have to dismantle their roster to trade for Nash, it turned out to be quite the opposite. In return for Nash, the Blue Jackets acquired Brandon Dubinsky, Artem Anisimov, Tim Erixson, and a first round pick in 2013. For those of you unfamiliar with those players, that's the equivalent of sending Brad Marchand, Rich Peverley, Matt Bartkowski, and a first round pick to Columbus from the Bruins.
Either Scott Howson really, really sucks at his job, or Glen Sather rufied him to get him to agree. My guess is both.
I mean come on, how the hell do you spend months asking for packages that teams were practically laughing at, you settle for pennies on the dollar? If you're going to trade a player like Nash, you have to at least get 95 cents on the dollar, if not full value. But this? It's just sad. That's about 8 cents on the dollar.
It kinda makes me wonder whether the Bruins really wanted Nash. If that was the price for Nash, why the hell wasn't Chiarelli kissing the ground Howson stood on? It's become pretty clear that the Bruins just weren't interested in parting with the players it would take, and I'm guessing they had no interest in taking on that humangous beeg cap hit as well. I agree with not wanting him, but at that price, they should have at least made a run for him to see if they could get Columbus to go even lower than New York's offer.
It appears that the New York media is already preparing to give Nash the key to the city. They're calling him a 'great leader', saying 'he didn't wear the C in Columbus for nothing'. Here's the thing, he kind of did. If Nash is such a great leader, why couldn't he take Columbus anywhere? What's he done since being drafted in ? One playoff appearance as the 8 seed only to be swept in the first round. This year he had a plethora of talent surrounding him. The Blue Jackets entered the season looking like they might actually content with Nash, Vermette, and Carter leading the way, and instead of being in the playoff race at the trade deadline, they're in the league basement, shipping out Carter to LA and Vermette to Phoenix. Why couldn't Nash, the ultimate player and leader, perform with that kind of talent around him? Why couldn't he just frigging play instead of pissing and moaning and bitching his way out of Columbus? If he couldn't do anything with those two guys playing with him, probably the best two pick ups of the season, how in hell is he going to do it in New York, where the pressure to win there is about 50x higher than it is in Columbus.
And then there's Shea Weber going to Philadelphia. He may have signed a ridiculous contract, but the Flyers just got a crap load better with this addition. Signing Shea Weber is like getting Chris Pronger, only 10 years younger and in his prime. You now have the Rangers and the Flyers with enormous additions to their rosters, and meanwhile the Bruins are sitting on their hands as usual. If you ask me, it's time for Peter Chiarelli to get off his ass and get on the phones.
The good news about the price for Nash is now every other player on the trade market becomes a lot cheaper. The '#BringBobby2Boston' pitch has become a much more realistic idea, and the chances of a deal of that nature going down between Anaheim and Boston just got a lot better. An asking price that could have been David Krejci, Jordan Caron, Dougie Hamilton, Ryan Spooner, and a pick just got lowered to about David Krejci, Jordan Caron, and a first round pick. And at the end of the day, that's really not much to give up considering what the Bruins would be getting back in return in terms of Ryan's production as well as the very high chance of Tyler Seguin blossoming upon being promoted to first line center, as that is his natural position.
The Rick Nash trade is going to have a domino effect throughout the league, just wait. In a few weeks, more names will have been signed and traded than have been all summer long up to this point. I'll eat crow if I'm wrong, but let's face it. I'm hardly ever wrong.
Back to the Boston Bruins Newsfeed