Quote:
Originally Posted by sureLoss
And again, it is still a chicken vs the egg problem. If Lombardi had compliance bought out Richards in the summer he would have had the cap flexibility to deal with Voynov.
Regardless of the court issues a player on LTIR coming back from injury is an issue every team in the NHL has to deal with.
Putting Richards in the AHL only gives the Kings an additional $925k in cap space. Highly doubtful it solves their issue with Voynov.
Lombardi made a mistake in not buying out Richards. He was a bottom 6 forward the last few years making top 6 money.
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It is the chicken vs. the egg problem. The Egg was Voynov and now Lombardi is dealing with a chicken named Richards. If I am Lombardi's boss I am not one bit upset with him at this point.
You just won a Cup and you were able to retain your line up. NO ONE could foresee Richards to fall off this much. NO ONE could foresee the Voynov dilemma.
Yes Richards was a bottom six player but, he still had played a valuable role until his current production drop off, and the LA Kings obviously felt that role was needed otherwise they would have bought him out. It's the old Bobby Holik saying "If I'm your number three center….you are probably going to win a Stanley Cup, If I am your number one center you probably are not going to make the playoffs, if I am your number two center we will be competitive, but not win a Stanley Cup." As mentioned on Hockey Central this afternoon.
If his production had not dropped off, and had Voynov not been suspended then this instance doesn't come up. Not being able to know that, Lombardi didn't "make a mistake" he is simply doing the right thing now.