Risky business: Trading for Rick Nash

Over the next few days a select number of general managers will ask themselves the same question: Should I trade for Rick Nash?

On paper, the Columbus Blue Jackets power forward is the best top-six forward available at the trade deadline, having averaged over 30 goals per season since breaking into the league in 2002. Over the last five seasons, Nash ranks sixth overall in goals with 161, behind only Alex Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Jarome Iginla, Corey Perry and Dany Heatley.

It is also easy to dismiss his struggles this season as a result of the poor linemates he's saddled with in Columbus, where he is on pace for 26 goals, 57 points and a minus-32 rating, all of which would be his lowest totals in at least five years.

However, teams should be interested less in what the five-time All-Star has already done and more in what he is likely to do in the remaining years of his contract, which comes out to a $7.8 million cap hit in each of the next six years. If they were, no team would consider making the deal. In the long term, it is extremely unlikely that Nash will deserve that kind of salary cap commitment and could even become a burden on any team that acquires him.

To read why Nash would be a big risk in the long term, plus gain access to all of ESPN Insider's NHL content, sign up today.

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