Logic tells us the Winnipeg Jets are likely to target a little bit of blue line help ahead of the NHL’s upcoming trade deadline, but Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos believes that’s not the only position on the club’s shopping list.
“Don’t be surprised if they start shopping for a top-six forward as well,” Kypreos said during Saturday’s Headlines on Hockey Night in Canada. “In a perfect world, they’d still like to maybe find someone on the left side that can go in there with [Mark] Scheifele and [Blake] Wheeler.”
The Jets are currently sitting atop the Central Division and looking like a legitimate Stanley Cup contender — something captain Blake Wheeler discussed in an exclusive interview with David Amber earlier in Saturday’s broadcast.
“Maybe, just maybe, a guy like Rick Nash would be of interest,” Kypreos said. “I don’t know whether or not that would fit in with where he is in his list of teams that he’d want to go to. But that’s the type of guy I think that Winnipeg would be looking at.”
Nash’s name has been floated as a potential rental for a little while now with the Rangers widely reported to be sellers at the Feb. 26 deadline. Per his contract, the pending UFA can submit a list of 12 teams he’d accept a trade to.
“I think when it comes to Nash, I think that’s coming any day now, where the Rangers go to him officially and say, ‘Rick, we want your list,’” said Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. “One of the story lines that is developing is there are some teams out there who believe that Rick Nash and [Michael] Grabner could get traded and then go back to New York next season. They both really like it there.”
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