The approach for the New York Rangers and GM Glen Sather this offseason depends very much on how they perceive the current makeup of their roster.
If they believe they'll continue to remain one of the top contenders in the Eastern Conference and require just a few tweaks here and there, a small retooling at a few positions will be in order, meaning a big-money player like Rick Nash, who played very well in the regular season - he scored a whopping 42 goals this year - and in two conference finals games, but came up alarmingly empty-handed in the other five, especially the all-important Game 7, which saw him collect just four shots, only one of which actually reached Lightning netminder Ben Bishop, will likely remain in place on Alain Vigneault's top unit.
If, on the other hand, Slather and the rest of the Rangers brass decide that major roster renovations are in order, a player like Nash, the poster child for highly-compensated guys who seem to consistently fall short in the season's biggest moments, could ultimately find himself playing elsewhere for next season.
Nash's current deal carries a $7.8 million cap hit, a limited no-trade clause and doesn't run out until after 2017-18. Considering the heft of his contract and the inclusion of a no-trade clause, albeit a limited one, the proposition of a trade is unlikely.
Then again, it's happened before.
"But if there is a belief that something more is required, then the Rangers would be wise to look at St. Louis, where coach Ken Hitchcock is an unabashed fan of No. 61, and the Blues are in desperate need of changing their own postseason narrative," writes Larry Brooks of The New York Post.
Of course, it's silly for Brooks to suggest that Nash should be jettisoned by the Rangers because of his failings in the postseason - only to then be picked up by a Blues team that has, under head coach Ken Hitchcock, developed a reputation for following overwhelmingly successful regular seasons with frustratingly inept and disappointing playoff efforts.
Still, if Hitchcock is enamored with Nash as Brooks intimates, it's not out of the realm of possibility that the two sides could come together on a deal.
Brooks posits that any trade would likely have to feature at least one of T.J. Oshie, Jaden Schwartz or Alexander Steen going back to the Blueshirts.
Schwartz is just 22 and only now developing his game - he seems unlikely to be dealt. Steen has a full no-trade clause, meaning as long as he's happy in St. Louis, he doesn't have to entertain the notion of a trade.
Which leaves Oshie, the former Olympic darling whose name has been bandied about in NHL trade rumors before, as the likeliest candidate to headline a hypothetical deal with the Rangers for Nash.
That being said, a deal would be difficult for a couple of reasons beyond Nash's own limited no-trade clause - the Blues are faced with the (good) problem of having to pay elite young goal-scorer Vladimir Tarasenko in the not-too-distant future, meaning their already-high payroll is about to go even higher. According to spotrac.com, the Blues currently have under $400,000 in cap space.
Nash's AAV is over $7 million - acquiring him would mean St. Louis cutting a considerable chunk of salary off their books then adding it right back on.
There's also Nash's prodigious production to consider - the Rangers should not lightly entertain the notion of parting ways with a player who has accounted for over 15 percent of all the goals scored by the team in the last three years.
The lack of a gritty energy guy like Mats Zuccarello, who seemed to flourish alongside Nash and Derick Brassard at the top of the New York lineup through the final stretch of the season, but who missed the remainder of the Ranger playoff run after suffering what was recently revealed to be a fractured skull and brain contusion due to a puck he took to the head in Game 5 of the Rangers first-round playoff series against the Penguins, certainly affected Nash's game this postseason.
