Renaud Lavoie via twitter: 2 NHL sources told Lavoie that Blue Jackets winger Rick Nash is on the trade market. Nash has a no-movement clause.
Kevin Paul Dupont via twitter: A Bruins offer for Nash would likely have to include Rask-Krejci or Rask-Lucic at core.
Aaron Portzline via twitter: Blue Jackets GM Scott Howson through a spokesman declines to comment on the report that Rick Nash is on the trade block.
It was only this evening that the most connected man in hockey, TSN’s Bob McKenzie said on national television that “Rick Nash, to our knowledge, is not available.” It struck me as a sane comment in what is generally an insane time.
So I’m very surprised to write that things appear to have changed.
Renaud Lavoie, a hockey reporter with RDS, tweeted the following tonight:
2 NHL sources told me that #bluejackets Rick Nash is on the market. Nash have a no-movement clause and will controle his destiny.
RDS doesn’t have quite the same reputation for accuracy as its sister channel, TSN, but Renaud Lavoie is a veteran reporter and a solid source. Additionally, in his French-language original article, Lavoie states that his original source for the story was a National Hockey League general manager. It’s also been interesting to note the reaction out of Columbus, as reported by Blue Jackets’ beat writer Aaron Portzline:
#CBJ GM Scott Howson, thru spokesman, declines comment on RDS report that #CBJ captain Rick Nash is on trade block.
Of course, Lavoie isn’t the first person to suggest that a Nash trade could go down. The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch wrote on Saturday that the New York Rangers were interested in Nash and that Nash might be willing to waive his no-trade clause to get a deal done. However, given Garrioch’s reputation for passing along rumours, his column alone wasn’t sufficient evidence to believe a trade could be in the works. The additional report from Lavoie and the reaction from Scott Howson makes the story decidedly more interesting.
Lavoie cautions that Nash controls his own destination because of his no-trade clause, and that only a few teams have a shot at acquiring the Columbus star. In other words, if he’s going somewhere, it almost certainly won’t be a team like Columbus (or Edmonton) – it will be a team with a clear chance at winning the Stanley Cup this season.
Update: The New York Daily News reports this evening that the Rangers and Blue Jackets have had personnel at each others games over the past month, including Columbus general manager Scott Howson, who attended the Rangers/Flyers match on Saturday night. They also spoke to Nash’s agent, Joe Resnick, who declined to comment on the rumour. While these are interesting facts in light of other reports, they’re hardly definitive: professional scouts scout other professional teams on a regular basis, and with the Blue Jackets out of the playoff picture there’s no doubt they’ll be making moves at the deadline – moves that very well may not include Nash.
My link
I would love to have Rask here.
I would put all this in the Rick Nash Rangers rumor thread, but I feel like there should be a Rick Nash trade rumors thread in general.
This point has been edited by Sfak8: 13 February 2012 - 11:35 PM
