Philadelphia Flyers Trade Rumors: Rick Nash Won't Be Enough for Stanley Cup Run

As the trading deadline heats up, we are hearing more Rick Nash trade rumors. The most recent one involves the Philadelphia Flyers expressing interest in the superstar power forward.

Although the prospects of seeing Nash play with the likes of Jaromir Jagr, Claude Giroux and Scott Hartnell looks enticing for Flyers fans, acquiring Nash doesn't really help improve the team much.

Will they become a better scoring team?

Of course, but they had that in recent years and won a total of zero Stanley Cups.

The Flyers traded Mike Richards and Jeff Carter this past summer with the hopes of becoming more defense-minded. Acquiring Nash and having to probably mortgage the future completely goes against that philosophy.

If the Flyers were to trade Nash, they would most likely have to bid farewell to Sean Couturier, Brayden Schenn, or James van Riemsdyk along with some draft picks and other pieces.

It's not worth it for Philadelphia. What they've done already by acquiring Pavel Kubina and Nicklas Grossman is enough. They've addressed defensive holes which were left because of Chris Pronger's injury.

The addition of Rick Nash doesn't do much. It only depletes the fruitful crop of youth the Flyers have and assists them in a category that they don't need much help in. With 193 goals scored, the Flyers are second in the league in putting pucks in the net.

What has plagued them is goaltending and defense. Chris Pronger's injury had a lot to do with the lack of defense, but the two aforementioned trades should be able to put a bandage on that wound.

What's going to ultimately determine how far the Flyers go in the postseason is their goaltending situation. Ilya Bryzgalov has not panned out the way the team had hoped.

By signing Bryzgalov, the Flyers expected to solve a goaltending problem that has been their Achilles heel for many years. Their enigma at the goalie position pretty much cost them the 2010 Stanley Cup Final when they had Michael Leighton starting in net for them.

Michael Leighton, by the way, is nowhere to be found in the NHL these days.

But Bryzgalov has been nothing short of disappointing. His .900 save percentage and 2.72 GAA is nowhere near the numbers he posted in Phoenix that helped him earn a massive contract in July.

If the Flyers are going to do some damage in the Eastern Conference, or even their own challenging division, Bryzgalov needs to rise above the occasion. He needs to regain his swagger. 

It wasn't difficult to notice that his ego has been shattered during Saturday's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. He was yanked out of the goal after allowing soft goals to Jordan Staal and Matt Cooke. He continuously played in the crease rather than challenging the shooter and coming out of the blue paint. This is a sign of lack of confidence in a goalie. 

That's definitely not something the Flyers want to see in their $51 million man.

Rick Nash doesn't solve that problem. It only tells the NHL that they're going to try to win the Cup by trying to outscore all of their opponents. 

That may work in the regular season, but in the end, the cliche, "Defense wins championships," exists for a reason.