Trade rumors around highly skilled forward pick up after recent signing.

Recent signing has left team with an abundance of forwards.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 7 years ago
Trade rumors around highly skilled forward pick up after recent signing.

The rumors around New York Rangers forward Rick Nash have been floating around since early May, when initial reports of trade talks with the Minnesota Wild surfaced. In that particular instance the Rangers were linked to defenseman Matt Dumba but of course as we know that deal has not materialized.

Those rumors were followed by reports later in the summer from Sportsnet insiders Elliotte Friedman and John Shannon, both of whom indicated there was indeed smoke to the trade talks involving the Rangers star forward. Much like with the initial rumors, the motivation for the trade from New York continued to be the acquisition of help on the defensive side of the ice.

Those rumors died down as focus turned to free agency following the draft, but the Rangers have quietly been stockpiling forwards. and now one Rangers insider believes a trade for a defenseman could once again been in the cards for the Rangers. Following the acquisition of forward Jimmy Vesey Newsday's Steve Zipay stated his belief that if the Rangers added Brandon Pirri it would leave the Rangers with a "forward surplus." 

[pub]

Pirri has in fact been signed by the Rangers, and the addition of a defenseman is likely in the mind of general manager Jeff Gorton one way on another, the question now becomes does he deal arguably his greatest asset to make it a reality? It's worthy noting that the trade earlier this summer of Taylor Hall for Adam Larsson may have set the market for offense for defense deals in the NHL.

There's no doubt that Nash's massive $7.8 million dollar cap hit presents a barrier to a deal, although the Rangers do have the option of retaining salary to make a deal a happen, and he's also coming off a rough year where he reportedly played through injury. With that said he's just one season removed from a 42 goal performance, and there are likely a number of teams willing to gamble on a player with the elite pedigree of Rick Nash.

Source: