Rick Nash Goes to Boston

			2018 Season				July 1st, 2018
To Boston	POS	Age	GP	G/W	Points	Cap	Years	Cap
Rick Nash	F	33	60	18	28	$3.9 mil	0	UFA
Retained Cap Hit on Beleskey					50%	$1.9 mil	2	$1.9 mil
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To New York	POS	Age	GP	Wins	Points	Cap	Years	Cap
Ryan Spooner	F	26	39	9	25	$2.825 mil	0	RFA
Matt Beleskey	F	29	14	0	0	$1.9 mil	2	$1.9 mil
Ryan Lindgren	D	20	0	0	0	USD	0	USD
2018 1st Round Draft Pick
2019 7th Round Draft Pick
Retained Cap Hit on Nash					50%	$3.9 mil	0

One of the big trades has dropped on Sunday morning, as the New York Rangers have sent big ticket (and big contract) player Rick Nash to the Boston Bruins for a massive package, which includes roster forward Ryan Spooner, their 1st round pick this summer and a very well-regarded defensive prospect as well.

As expected, there is plenty of math going on here, as the Bruins, who have been snuggled up nicely against the salary cap ceiling for the better part of the year, couldn't take on the entire load of Nash's contract and so some shifting had to be done either way.  We won't bog ourselves down with that, but all of those retained cap hits are in annual figures, only the retained cap hit for Matt Beleskey will really count to the Bruins after this season.

So, the Bruins get another power forward in Nash and he could be available for an immediate impact on Sunday evening, when the Bruins take on the Sabres, depending on travel time, but another big body to help in the offensive zone is really hard to turn down.

The cost for this potential rental is incredibly steep, as Spooner, likely the best player going the other way (for now), was thought to be a pretty important piece to the Bruins' future moving forward, but the cost of doing business is opening up those roster spots to make room for players coming in.  The Rangers get a pretty good piece coming back, especially when you look at his scoring production this season.

And then there's the futures for the Rangers, picking up another 1st round pick and a 2016 2nd round pick prospect in defenseman Ryan Lindgren, who was ranked in the top 100 prospects by the Hockey News in the summer.  The Rangers are rebuilding and it looks like they've made a good move in that direction.

Nash going to Boston has some potential gains for his season, as the Bruins play the style of game that suits the big body and they have players that can feed that puck in his path to get him there.  This is good news for Scott's team, down in 24th place, especially, if his team wants to try and move up a spot or two before the end of the year.

I would also say that Spooner going to the Rangers is going to be a loss, as the Rangers start their tear down, we don't really know who Spooner is going to have to play with and their offense hasn't exactly been bristling before this deal anyways.  This is potentially bad news for Benson's team, who added Spooner in the Week Eighteen swap and has 4 points from his first nine games of being active.  Stay tuned here!