Howson, Rick Nash, & Detroit – An Unholy Bargain?

After months of the Rick Nash saga dragging on and on, Aaron Portzline offered perhaps the darkest twist yet.

The Red Wings making a play for the Columbus captain? Could there be a greater insult to the fanbase than seeing the player who embodied their club going to their most hated rival?

It would seem it is a real possibility.

At this point, Portzline suggests the Wings are a distant third in the race compared to the Rangers and Sharks, but Red Wings GM Ken Holland has apparently made inquiries.

While it’s tempting to suggest swapping for Pavel Datsyuk or Henrik Zetterberg, it’s far more likely that the Wings would propose a package to land the power forward.

What, then, would Scott Howson want?

An interesting possibility comes from the Red Wings goaltending situation. With Detroit agreeing to terms earlier today with former Maple Leaf Jonas Gustavsson, they have started to develop a bit of a logjam in net between “The Monster”, Jimmy Howard, Joey MacDonald, and prospect Petr Mrazek.

Scott Howson had some interest in Gustvasson as a free agent, so he might be an interesting carrot to dangle, but an even more fascinating possibility would be Howard.

If Detroit believes that Gustavsson can shine as a #1 in their system, why not propose a deal that sends Howard to Columbus, particularly since he has just one season left on his current contract? Even better, perhaps propose flipping Steve Mason as part of the package, leaving Columbus with Bob and Jimmy as the tandem? It would go a long way towards fixing one of the team’s greatest historical weaknesses.

If Columbus was looking for prospects, I would expect them to look at promising forwards Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar, or perhaps to ask for Valtteri Filppula as a proven NHL forward who also would help to balance out the cap hit.

Of course, that type of package still might not erase the mental anguish of Columbus fans, but it might be enough to at least feel that Nash went for what amounted to a solid hockey trade.

That said, Mr. Howson, would you mind saving us all a lot of anguish and just send Nash ANYWHERE else?

I hear Abu Dhabi is nice this time of year.

Could you accept a deal that sent Rick Nash to Detroit?