NHL Trade Rumors: Acquiring Rick Nash Would Ruin Future of Philadelphia Flyers

The Philadelphia Flyers are reportedly talking to the Columbus Blue Jackets about a trade involving Rick Nash, but acquiring the star winger would severely hurt the future of the Flyers organization.

Via the Sporting News:

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The Blue Jackets sent general manager Scott Howson and senior advisor Craig Patrick to the Flyers' Saturday game, and Howson spoke to Flyers GM Paul Holmgren, according to CSN Philly's Tim Panaccio.

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For all the goaltending issues the Flyers have right now, evidenced by Ilya Bryzgalov getting pulled yet again in an ugly loss to the Penguins on Saturday, one issue the team doesn't suffer from is a lack of quality young forwards.

The Flyers don't need Nash to improve as a team. They must continue to better their goaltending situation and find some young defensemen who can play well when Chris Pronger and Kimmo Timonen leave in the near future.

Philly has several good young players who have the potential to be stars for a long time at the NHL level, including Brayden Schenn, Sean Couturier, Matt Read, Wayne Simmonds and James Van Riemsdyk. Those are some fabulous players who are all playing big minutes and performing well this season.

Claude Giroux is the Flyers' best young player, and is a legitimate Hart Trophy candidate this season. His 67 points thus far leads the Flyers and ranks second in the entire league. Giroux has become a superstar player and is one of many young talents that has made the future of the Flyers offense look very bright.

All this talent at forward makes acquiring Nash completely unnecessary for Philly. If they wanted to trade some of their best young talent for a star defenseman, like Nashville's Ryan Suter or Shea Weber, that would be understandable, but a goal scorer like Nash isn't a need for the Flyers.

Nash has a salary-cap hit of $7.8 million for the next six seasons, which would burden the Flyers' salary-cap flexibility for the next several years.

Trading for Nash doesn't make sense for the Flyers on many levels. If the Flyers are going to make a major move at the deadline, it needs to be for a defenseman and not a forward.