NHL Trade Rumors: Rick Nash's No-Movement Clause Will Limit Suitors

Rick Nash has been placed on the trading block by the Columbus Blue Jackets, according to The Columbus Dispatch’s Aaron Portzline.

With the NHL trade deadline just around the corner—February 27—you can be assured it will be a wild few weeks fueled by rumor and speculation on where the Columbus captain will be headed.

Even though the Blue Jackets are easily the worst team in the league right now, Nash’s no-movement clause of his contract will still make flipping him harder than the organization would like it to be.

It’s extremely doubtful that the right winger will want to go to another rebuilding situation and the Olympic gold medalist more than likely will try and land with a competitive, playoff-bound club.

Portzline believes that the Jackets are going to field a number of offers until they find one they like for their star player and then try and pitch him on the location to avoid getting shut down by the no-movement clause.

Last month, Nash reiterated that he loved the city and had no reason to leave, but if they don’t want him there, he wouldn’t make it difficult to move him.  

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“I love Columbus. I love being here. I love being a Blue Jacket," Nash said. "The city of Columbus deserves a winner and deserves a good product on the ice. If it comes to that – like you said, all speculation – but if they don’t want me here, they want to move me? I’m not going to do something where it’s going to hurt the franchise just because I have that in my contract.”

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However, it would just be a crazy career choice for the captain to go to another bottom feeder at the age of 27. He’s in the prime of his career and it would be a waste of talent. He’s only been to the postseason once in his career since being picked No. 1 overall in 2002.

For his sake, he had better hope a great team makes an offer and adds what could be an integral part to a Stanley Cup run.