Ottawa Senators still pursuing Nash: Murray
Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray is still in talks with the Columbus Blue Jackets to acquire Rick Nash.
PITTSBURGH – Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray is still in talks with the Columbus Blue Jackets to acquire Rick Nash.
He doesn’t know if he’ll get called back, or if the Blue Jackets will even deal Nash this weekend.
But the Senators are interested.
If the Senators succeed, it appears the deal will be a straight players-for-Nash deal. Ottawa’s first pick in today’s draft, 15th overall, has not been discussed.
Murray also said he is not in talk with Anaheim to acquire Bobby Ryan.
The San Jose Sharks appear to be Ottawa’s major competitor for Nash.
They’ve offered Ryane Clowe, Joe Pavelski, Jason Demers, and a first-round choice while the Senators have offered, at the very least, Robin Lehner and Mika Zibanejad.
At one time or another, Nick Foligno and Ben Bishop have been mentioned as part of the package.
Nash, under contract through the 2017-18 season, carries a cap hit of 7.8 million, which would make him the highest-paid player on the Senators.
Jason Spezza, under contract through 2014-15, carries a cap hit of 7 million.
More to come…
The price of Robin Lehner is just too much… They take Bishop + an extra prospect.. or let SJ have Nash.
Prospects are prospects. They are completely worthless outside of filler material until they have proven thesmselves with a good 2-3 seasons in the bigs.
Nash likely isn’t coming to Ottawa though, his wife “allegedly” wants a big city and Ottawa has big city amenities but you can’t hide here…ask Ray Emery, Dany Heately or just about any of the players.
We don’t need Nash anyway. What we need is a winger that will actually do dirty work for the fragile Spezza and reluctant Michalek, that will bleed for this organization and play through the worst of pain. Nash is not that person, he is a one-dimensional puck hog that has probably not had a scratch on his pretty face in his entire career.
Lifetime loser, never led his team to any playoff success, happy with his points, DO NOT WANT.
Ottawa is in perfect position to be in running for Nash. He is a bigger body and goal scorer to play along side spezza and with Alfy nearing the end of what I’d consider an amazing career. Nash would bring an element of the game to the nations capital that hasn’t been seen in a couple years. Heatley as much as we all dislike now for his actions in past all once loved. Not saying same player but potientally simmilar production. This move might be enough for Alfy to come back one more year and play his heart out on what could be easily considered a contender. I think price is high for a player that hasn’t proven worth his paycheck but keeping in mind jackets made deal earlier today bringing in goalie that could mean Ottawa might be able to keep Lenner as well. Not big on the idea of foligno being in conversations as he’s become one of ottawas most important pieces. But there are tons of prospects to choose from moving a couple plus some draft picks for Nash would be well worth it.
I honestly can’t see Ottawa picking up Nash with the offer listed in this article. I am thinking that eventually Michalek would be a part of the discussion partly because it gives Columbus a top 6 (or even top 3) forward and partly because it would allow Ottawa to dump some salary while taking on Nash’s contract. I am not one of those who gets too worked up about Lehner because he has not played a full season in the bigs yet, so if he is used to sweeten the pot then so be it. The only danger is that Ottawa is already a big thin in terms of goaltender depth. And losing Foligno would be a lot like trading Kelly away a couple of seasons back–it hurt at the time, but there are guys lining up to fill the spot.