The Kings as an organization have been seriously publicly embarrassed by the conduct of their players twice this year. (I don't mean to downplay the seriousness of the Voinov allegations by calling them 'embarrassing', but you get what I mean). I would imagine that the organization as a whole is a total tinderbox. I would also imagine that after Stoll turned up in TMZ, there was some pretty substantial internal yelling and screaming. 'Zero Tolerance' and 'Unacceptable' and 'The next guy that so much as...' and things like that getting sent around in All Caps.
I'm not saying that justifies cancelling Richards contract, and I have no idea if they are in the right to do so. But I bet that recent history context has everything to do with this.
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