Quote:
Originally Posted by jeh82
There's always going to be posturing.
I have no doubt that he asked for one of Stepan and Kreider, one of McDonagh or MDZ, and some other pieces as his starting position. I'm also pretty certain that he knew both Stepan and McDonagh were out of bounds from the start.
From what I remember, the crux of the matter was that the Rangers refused to include _either_ Kreider or MDZ at the deadline. That's what caused the deal to fall apart. I think most of the other pieces were either agreed upon or negotiable.
If that's true, I don't blame Howson one bit.
Go back a year and imagine Richards getting traded turned into a prolonged saga. Now imagine that the Kings refused to include Schenn and were pushing a package of Hickey / Forbert / VV + Simmonds instead.
The Blue Jackets absolutely must get this thing right... or at least keep it from going horribly wrong. They don't need MDZ. They really, really don't. If he ends up being the most valuable asset in a package for Nash, I think they've made a mistake.
Other teams are interested--Toronto and the Senators both apparently have made some calls. The Senators can offer one of Zbad / Cowan and Lehner--that helps Columbus more than Dubinsky and MDZ.
Two reasons:
1) If every single hockey personality and fan on the planet knows that is a massive, horrendous overpayment, then it is a bit hard to believe that Columbus stuck by it for through the protracted negotiations.
2) The rumored "final" offer from the Rangers included NONE of the "big four" assets--McDonagh, MDZ, Kreider, or Stepan. It was something like Dubinsky, Christian Thomas, Erixon and a 1st. (Might have been J.T. Miller instead of Erixon). If that package was Howson's bottom line, and the negotiations went on for weeks, how did they still end up _that_ far apart?
Like I said, I have no insider information or special knowledge. But it just doesn't pass the smell test.
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Richards didn't want to be traded and wasn't signed to an outrageous cap hit.
And it's not just the Rangers I don't think, we just hear the most about those offers since the Rangers were the most involved. Wasn't Howson also adamant about Couturier being in any deal with the Flyers? Who knows what he was asking for from other teams.
There's a difference between posturing and asking for so much that other teams just find it ridiculous.