Now that the Blue Jackets’ dumbfounding desire to trade Rick Nash is being debated from Boston to Vancouver, one simple thought should be inserted into every discussion that occurs in the team’s meeting rooms:

Prospects are prospects. They aren’t stars. They aren’t sure things. They are glorified lottery tickets. Even the best of them — and no team is going to give the Blue Jackets the best of them in this kind of deal — are gambles with a capital G.

Nash is a star. Prospects are guys somebody says are going to be stars. There’s a big, big difference.

Nikita Filatov was a prospect. So was Alexandre Picard. And Gilbert Brule. You could now get all three of those Blue Jackets first-round clunkers for a wheelbarrow of pucks. But they were all going to be stars, and a lot of smart hockey people believed it.

“Good, young players” aren’t sure things, either. Nikolay Zherdev was one of those. And Rostislav Klesla. And Jake Voracek. As of today, there isn’t a star among them.

No franchise in North America should understand this concept better than the Blue Jackets, who have had 11 picks in the top eight spots in 12 years and have gotten one star to show for it — Nash. So the Jackets are out there seriously shopping him for “good, young players” and draft picks?

Many reports have them getting a top goalie prospect — apparently one who isn’t Mark Dekanich, the young soon-to-be-standout the Jackets signed last summer. He hasn’t made it out of the minors.

Steve Mason was going to be a star goalie, and was — for one glorious season. He won the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie and became one of those “good, young players” the Jackets want now. He’s also on the trading block, and the Jackets hope to get another goaltending prospect in this fateful Nash deal.

See how this goes? The Blue Jackets had another goaltending prospect who figured to be a star — Pascal Leclaire, the No. 8 overall draft pick in 2001. But he had injury problems, never became more than a “good, young player,” and the Jackets dealt him to the Ottawa Senators. He’s a free agent, one of those prospects who, for whatever reason, didn’t pan out.

Even if trading Nash is the best move for the franchise, it won’t be easy. A team with the right pieces has to have room to accommodate Nash’s $7.8 million salary-cap hit and has to be one Nash himself approves.

Vancouver’s Cory Schneider and Los Angeles’ Jonathan Bernier are the top two goaltending prospects out there. But the Canucks are reluctant to part with Schneider and aren’t likely to bring in a player making more money than their own stars (like the Sedin twins), who have taken hometown discounts.

And Bernier still hasn’t had enough NHL experience for anyone to be positive he’s not another Leclaire. For the Jackets to trade their only true star, they have to find the perfect trading partner and the perfect deal, and they can’t afford to blow it.

Rebuilding a roster might be a good way to slash payroll and start anew, but it’s an especially risky proposition when a team’s fan base has already run out of patience. The fans here aren’t likely to accept a promise that all of these “good, young players” will become stars in two or three years, which we know means at least three or four, or perhaps never.

The fans are understandably skeptical. They have no reason — none — to believe that general manager Scott Howson and team president Mike Priest are savvy enough to blow up the roster and get it right when they haven’t done it in the past.

Let the seller beware:

If the Jackets get rid of Nash, Jeff Carter and who knows who else, Nationwide Arena might become so barren next season that the team can hold antique shows, arts festivals and flea markets on the arena concourse.

It might be the only way for the Jackets to generate any meaningful revenue until they get another real star to take Nash’s place.

Bob Hunter is a sports columnist for The Dispatch.

bhunter@dispatch.com