Report: Blue Jackets and Rangers have discussed a Rick Nash trade

The New York Post’s Larry Brooks is reporting that the Rangers and Blue Jackets have had “preliminary discussions” about a Rick Nash trade.

(How exciting!)

Of course, one Post source called the likelihood of a deadline deal “a longshot.”

(Oh.)

Brooks notes that while the Rangers have the cap space, the asking price for Nash would likely be in excess of the speculated package of Brandon Dubinsky, blue-chip prospect Chris Kreider, and a first-round draft choice.

It is hard to believe that Columbus GM Scott Howson, who scouted the Rangers-Flyers game in Philadelphia on Saturday and presumably will be at the Garden this Sunday when the Blue Jackets face the Blueshirts, is not demanding that Derek Stepan and/or Ryan McDonagh be included with Kreider in the package going the other way for Nash.

Brooks also wonders what effect such an enormous move would have on the Rangers’ chemistry. (Last week, he wrote a glowing column about the team’s all-for-one-and-one-for-all attitude.)

Still, the prospect of adding an elite talent like Nash could be awfully tempting for GM Glen Sather given his team’s mediocre offense and dreadful power play.

Related: Nash on trade rumors: “As of right now, I’m a Blue Jacket”