Rick Nash to the Kings: Why it could and should happen
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Rick Nash to the Kings?
Nearly everyone in the hockey world believes it will happen. And why wouldn’t they?
The Columbus Dispatch reported that the Kings were believed to be among the five teams on Nash’s approved list. Indeed, talks have occurred this week between the Kings and Blue Jackets regarding what it will take to acquire the dynamic right wing.
Although deals this complex don’t happen in the space of a few hours, or keystrokes, the Kings possess the assets to make it come to fruition: a promising goalie, a wealth of defensemen, and youth. It adds up to an intriguing mix that GM Scott Howson can sell to his disgruntled fan base in Columbus.
And speaking of disgruntled....
The seemingly endless goodwill and patience of Kings’ fans vaporized with the arrival of their mail the other day, which brought the announcement of a significant season-seat price increase. Their frustration and anger was nicely summarized by Times colleague Helene Elliott.
Which comes back to Nash.
Very rarely do hockey trades work on an organizational (hockey department) level and marketing level. This accomplishes both and would quell the outrage about the price increase.
Nash to Los Angeles is the marquee move that Kings’ president and GM Dean Lombardi tried to pull off, first with Ilya Kovalchuk and, more recently, last summer with Brad Richards, who ended up with the New York Rangers.
Did we mention Lombardi’s boss, AEG’s Tim Leiweke, likes headline-making moves? OK, check that. Loves them.
Keeping David Beckham in L.A. and bringing a bona fide star to the Kings, all in all, would not be a bad couple of months of work for Leiweke.
-- Lisa Dillman
