Rick Nash won’t waive his no-trade clause to join the Ottawa Senators, so now the club is saying it will no longer pursue the star winger.
“I would say we’re out of the talks – yes,” confirmed general manager Bryan Murray on Sunday afternoon.
“Basically, we weren’t on the list. I’ll put it that way,” added Murray. “As far as I know, it (Nash’s trade list) never changed, so there was sense in chasing. We just didn’t feel that was necessary.”
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The Senators had previously stated their interest in landing Nash, as Murray held several conversations with Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson around the NHL Draft weekend in Pittsburgh. But now, the Senators are officially out of the running and are also taking their name off the list for New Jersey Devils star Zach Parise.
Murray said the club had wanted to add a legitimate top-six forward through free agency, but felt the price to land a star player was too steep for the organization.
“We talked to everybody – the Nash camp and the Parise camp. It just didn’t work with our way of operating with the number of young people we have coming and the commitment we had to make financially and term. So we just stepped nicely back from that,” said Murray.
The club was active on Sunday, by trading winger Nick Foligno to the Blue Jackets in exchange for defenseman Marc Methot, who will fill the club’s hole on the back end. Instead of splurging on a free agent, Murray took a more conservative route by inking Guillaume Latendresse to a one-year contract.
Ideally, Latendresse will play in Ottawa’s top six and give head coach Paul MacLean some different options. Murray doesn’t anticipate any major moves happening in the next few weeks, even with several key free agents still available.
“We’ve got a full team now. I think – because of our development camp – we have a good number of young men that will challenge for a position on this hockey team. I can’t foresee right now doing much more.”
