Nash Stashed

Now that the Columbus Blue Jackets have decided to keep Rick Nash rather than trade him, I'm inclined to say good. While I was rooting for the New York Rangers to work out a deal to land the explosive winger, the more I find out about the negotiations, the more relieved I am that Glen Sather didn't get the chance to pull the trigger.

While the Rangers are hardly the offensive powerhouse the Bruins, Penguins and Flyers are, their defense is first rate and the goaltending championship caliber. Nash would've certainly made them more dangerous on the power play and given them another scoring winger to go along with Marian Gaborik and Ryan Callahan, but gutting the team to acquire him would've been subtraction by addition.  And that's exactly what would've happened had Columbus gotten its way.  For once, Sather didn't get what he was after.

Forget the cap issue, which would've been challenging but hardly insurmountable, the asking price for Nash would've cost the Rangers a package that likely would've included Brandon Dubinsky, prospect Tim Erixon, a first-round draft pick,  Derek Stepan and either Ryan McDonagh or Michael Del Zotto.  While Dubinsky's stock has gone down a bit this year, he is still a proven 20-goal scorer; McDonogh and Del Zotto anchor a defense that is the envy of the league; and Stepan currently centers Gaborik, the team leader in goals.  In the end it was way too much to give up even for a wheeler and dealer like Sather.

I guess it's true that sometimes the best trades are the ones you don't make, or can't.