2012 NHL Offseason: Don't Expect A Rick Nash Deal Anytime Soon

Hopefully this will be the last of the rumors we hear for a while, regarding Rick Nash. Columbus Blue Jacket's general manager Scott Howson (I'm sure you all know about him, right?), spoke with TSN's Geno Reda on Friday's edition of "That's Hockey". Howson finally shed some light on what he was expecting in return for Rick Nash, if he were to deal him off.

One area Howson hinted at, is that the Blue Jackets are looking to acquire a couple NHL-ready forwards from the teams interested. A couple, as in two-three NHL ready forwards. NHL-ready forwards as in guys like Derek Stepan, Carl Hagelin, and/or Artem Anisimov, just to name a few. I know a lot of people wouldn't hesitate dealing off some of those players listed, but for a single player, that price is just a little bit too high.

I know..Nash is a proven 30-40 goal scorer and all of that jazz, but just image the impact it would have on any team that were to acquire his services. They're not looking for your typical third line players, all of your prospects, or boat loads of draft picks, they want youth that can provide a spark right now. Just imagine giving up half, if not, your entire second line to get Rick Nash. What did it really fix? Sure you added your goal scorer, but look at the other holes that were just busted wide open after the trade went down.

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Suddenly you're looking at a large gap in your second line, with guys like Stepan, Anisimov or Hagelin departing for Columbus. Not to mention, Hagelin and Stepan haven't even been given time to reach their prime yet. Sure Nash is an upgrade over them, but the Rangers have a youth movement in place, why mortgage the future, just to bring in everyone's coveted goal scorer.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not taking a shot at Rick Nash, the guy can flat out play. I just think Howson has a ridiculous price tag on his man. I know, this has been going on forever, but I think it's finally time to put an end to all the Rick Nash chatter. Howson shed some more light on Nash's price tag:

"He's an elite player, he's been a tremendous ambassador for our franchise and our city and we're very comfortable with the value we've placed on him and until we get that value, we're going to keep working away at it."

"We don't have a deadline," said Howson. "Rick's under contract and we'll continue to work at this…and we'll hope we get a resolution to this."

So basically what I'm trying to say here is..don't expect a deal anytime soon, it simply won't happen. Howson is even hinting at that himself, basically by saying no offer that has been thrown at them, even comes close to their internal price tag.

I know it's been a very dry offseason for the Rangers, and in terms of free agents, but until something gets remotely close, can we please stop with all of the Nash chatter?

Thoughts on all of this?