Rick Nash Trade Rumors: Why Flyers Would Be Beast of East If They Land Star

The Philadelphia Flyers have a history of making player acquisition splashes, which is why Elliotte Friedman of CBC sports said the following after speaking with representatives of NHL teams about Rick Nash's possible landing spot.

"There are a lot of teams who think this has Flyers written all over it."

Just last year, Philadelphia inked goalie Ilya Bryzgalov to a nine-year, $51 million deal on the same day they traded away long-time stars Jeff Carter and Mike Richards.

The Flyers are no strangers to making eye-popping deals.

Acquiring Nash would be huge, even by those standards. Nash has been one of the game's top-10 players over the past seven years, and he's only 27 years old. The deal won't come without some skepticism. After all, Nash's contract is $7.8 million and it runs through the 2017-2018 season. However, I believe he's worth it.

He's been trapped on a team that has been to the postseason only once in their 11 year existence. Even so, Nash has still averaged 58.5 points per game during his career, and his point total could go up on a more talented team.

Nash would almost certainly be placed on one of the Flyers' top two lines and add even more offense and size to Philly's talented set of forwards.

Looking to next year, Jaromir Jagr, who will be a free agent, may be retiring or at least moving on to another team. He's 40 years old, and Nash could easily fit into the role that he has played and likely improve upon Jagr's performance, too.

The Flyers are already just 10 points behind the NY Rangers in the division and conference standings. Acquiring Nash would give the team the push they need.

Heading into the postseason, the Flyers would be one of the most dangerous teams in the league.

This is a blockbuster deal the Flyers will benefit from now and in the future.