BOSTON — The Rangers have had preliminary discussions with the Blue Jackets regarding the availability of Rick Nash, The Post has learned, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the 27-year-old power winger is en route to Broadway.
An individual familiar with the situation told The Post that the chance of completing a trade before the Feb. 27 deadline is a long shot.
Nash, who owns a no-move clause and has never before shown any desire to play in a major market, is on the second year of a contract that carries a $7.8 million salary cap hit per season and runs through 2017-18.
The Rangers would have the cap space to acquire Nash, who will be legitimately pursued by a handful of big-market contenders and who will be able to exercise a veto at any time in the process.
The Post had been told the opening asking price for the 6-4, 220-pounder who has spent his entire career with the Blue Jackets following his first overall selection in the 2002 Entry Draft is in excess of the package speculated to be Brandon Dubinsky, Boston College can’t-miss prospect Chris Kreider, and a first-round draft choice.
It is hard to believe Columbus GM Scott Howson, who scouted the Rangers-Flyers game in Philadelphia on Saturday and presumably will be at Madison Square Garden this Sunday when the Blue Jackets face the Rangers, is not demanding that Derek Stepan and/or Ryan McDonagh be included with Kreider in the package going the other way for Nash.
(It’s even harder to believe that Howson, who is all but certain to be dismissed at the end of this season in which the Blue Jackets are a distant 30th overall, is being permitted to deal Columbus’ franchise player, but that’s another matter.)
In that case, the asking price would seem to be a non-starter for the Rangers, who are second overall in the NHL with 77 points and hold a seven-point lead over the Bruins for the Eastern Conference lead and an eight-point lead over the Flyers for the Atlantic Division lead going into Tuesday night’s match here against the Bruins.
Even as Rangers general manager Glen Sather is seeking to add a legitimate goal-scorer for the playoffs, there is a consensus that a huge part of the team’s success is a result of the bond between teammates and the chemistry in the room that has meshed to produce a sum-greater-than-its-parts unit.
Nash, who has scored between 27 and 41 goals in each of the past seven years after getting 17 as a rookie, is not only a legitimate offensive weapon, he is a huge presence.
But he is a presence who would distinctly alter the make-up of the team and who, having played his entire career in a small market, would become the focus of extreme attention in New York in a trade that would by definition become high-risk, potentially high-reward.