NHL Trade Rumors: Dark Horse Candidates to Acquire Rick Nash from Blue Jackets

Everybody is coming up with trade scenarios for their favorite team involving Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who, if you haven't heard, is the center of NHL trade rumors right now since he's reportedly on the trading block.

While ESPN has reported that the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers, Los Angeles Kings and Vancouver Canucks are five teams who could interested in Nash, there are some intriguing dark horse candidates who have the trade assets to acquire the Blue Jackets captain before the February 27 trading deadline.

Let's look at three teams who could and should make an unexpected and bold move to acquire Nash, thus shaking up the playoff race in a major way.

San Jose Sharks

The Sharks have the pieces to acquire Nash, and it makes perfect sense on a few levels. For starters, the Sharks have some prospects that the Blue Jackets would certainly like, and two of them are defenseman Taylor Doherty and goaltender Alex Stalock.

San Jose may also be willing to part with talented forwards Logan Couture and Joe Pavelski. Couture, 22, and Pavelski, 27, are two of the best young goal scorers in hockey, and since the Blue Jackets would be needing a good forward to replace Nash on their first line, acquiring one of these two young Sharks stars is a smart idea.

The Sharks have a veteran team, especially at forward where they are an aging group. Take a look at the Sharks' stars who are at least 30 years old:

Player	Age
Michal Handzus	34
Martin Havlat	30
Patrick Marleau	32
Joe Thornton	32
Dan Boyle	35

Those are five of the Sharks' best players, four of them forwards, and to compete in the long term the Sharks would be smart to add another top young player, especially in their top six forward spots. 

Nash is just 27 years old and is a proven star, and would make the Sharks the favorites in the Pacific division for sure—maybe even the Western Conference.

St. Louis Blues

St. Louis head coach Ken Hitchcock used to coach Nash in Columbus, and he has turned the Blues into a Stanley Cup contender this season.

The Blues have one of the best goalies to offer the Blue Jackets in exchange for Nash, and that's Jaroslav Halak. Columbus has to get a top goaltender at the NHL level, or a top goaltender prospect for Nash, and Halak is a proven playoff-caliber netminder.

With Brian Elliott having a great season between the pipes, St. Louis could afford to let Halak go, but is Elliott going to be this good next season? Are his Vezina trophy-caliber stats a flash in the pan or the real deal? That's the situation the Blues would have to think about.

The Blues also could throw in Chris Stewart, a first-round pick and a defensive prospect for Nash. So that's Halak (NHL caliber goalie), Stewart (good power forward), and a first round pick plus a defensive prospect. That's an incredible package for the Blue Jackets.

The Blues do a tremendous job of competing without signing or trading for big-name stars with huge contracts, but even though Nash has a salary cap hit of $7.8 million for six more seasons, the Blues would be smart to consider making a serious run at Nash before the trading deadline.

Washington Capitals

The Capitals already have a lot of long-term contracts on their payroll, but Nash is the type of player they need at forward.

Nash is a typical power forward who would add some toughness and physical play to a Capitals forward group who needs to play with more intensity. Nash and center Nicklas Backstrom would be an amazing combination thanks to Backstrom's exquisite playmaking skills.

Washington is close to the salary cap but they have a number of free agents who could depart in the summer, including Alexander Semin, Mike Green and Mike Knuble.

The Capitals' top forward prospect, Russian Yevgeni Kuznetsov, would likely be the starting place in any trade talks for Nash. Washington can also add a young defenseman like John Carlson into the mix.

The Capitals are three points out of a playoff spot and need a roster shake up to get their players going. Acquiring Nash would be a good short-term move for the Capitals.

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Nicholas Goss is a Boston Bruins Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and was the organization's on-site reporter for the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals in Boston.