[News] Kings terminate Richards contract. UPD: Kings and Richards reach settlement

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Dion

The PA and Richards made the right choice in going for a negotiated settlement as opposed to arbitration. Had they lost it would have opened the door for other teams to do something simlar in the future.

This doesn't stop that though. It merely means it's still an open question and the team can probably get a settlement better than a buyout.

[druetetective]

So do you guys think Richards NHL career is over?
or is a clean/fit Mike Richards still worth at least a $575k(?) min contract?

[Dion]

Originally Posted by GioforPM

This doesn't stop that though. It merely means it's still an open question and the team can probably get a settlement better than a buyout.

For sure it's still an open question. The Kings going the settlement route is quite different than the strong stance they and the NHL had in the beginning. It makes me wonder what discussions went on behind the scenes that caused the Kings to change that stance. Will probably never know.

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Dion

For sure it's still an open question. The Kings going the settlement route is quite different than the strong stance they and the NHL had in the beginning. It makes me wonder what discussions went on behind the scenes that caused the Kings to change that stance. Will probably never know.

They need to resign Kopitar and don't want it to linger during the season

[activeStick]

Kings GM Dean Lombardi emotionally tells of Mike Richards' 'destructive spiral

"Without a doubt, the realization of what happened to Mike Richards is the most traumatic episode of my career," Lombardi said in a written summation he provided to The Times on Friday. "At times, I think that I will never recover from it. It is difficult to trust anyone right now-and you begin to question whether you can trust your own judgment. The only thing I can think of that would be worse would be suspecting your wife of cheating on you for five years and then finding out in fact it was true.

http://www.latimes.com/la-sp-sn-king...009-story.html

[albertGQ]

Originally Posted by druetetective

So do you guys think Richards NHL career is over?
or is a clean/fit Mike Richards still worth at least a $575k(?) min contract?

I think he'd be toxic and a bad influence. Looks like the whole Dry Island thing was true. But didn't seem to hurt Jeff Carter that much

[mikephoen]

Originally Posted by activeStick

Kings GM Dean Lombardi emotionally tells of Mike Richards' 'destructive spiral

"Without a doubt, the realization of what happened to Mike Richards is the most traumatic episode of my career," Lombardi said in a written summation he provided to The Times on Friday. "At times, I think that I will never recover from it. It is difficult to trust anyone right now-and you begin to question whether you can trust your own judgment. The only thing I can think of that would be worse would be suspecting your wife of cheating on you for five years and then finding out in fact it was true.

http://www.latimes.com/la-sp-sn-king...009-story.html

This is admittedly very cynical of me, but I don't believe a word Lombardi says anymore.

[Huntingwhale]

Originally Posted by mikephoen

This is admittedly very cynical of me, but I don't believe a word Lombardi says anymore.

Lombardi has always come across as kind of a cry baby to me. The kind of guy with a continuous sob story.

Having said that, it would be a real interesting to know the truth behind some of the Richard's rumors

[powderjunkie]

In 5 or 6 years he could be a good fit in New Jersey.

[T@T]

LA gets away with murder.

Cap hit is $1.320m for 5 years

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by T@T

LA gets away with murder.

Cap hit is $1.320m for 5 years

That is just the recapture. They are also getting hit with whatever the settlement is spread over 16 years.

[saillias]

Originally Posted by mikephoen

This is admittedly very cynical of me, but I don't believe a word Lombardi says anymore.

Yeah, what the hell is this crap? "Guys I'm the victim here. Richards was a super manipulative drug monster and he ruined my ability to trust waaah" give me a break. He seems allergic to admitting that the whole thing is just business and cap related.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by activeStick

Kings GM Dean Lombardi emotionally tells of Mike Richards' 'destructive spiral

"Without a doubt, the realization of what happened to Mike Richards is the most traumatic episode of my career," Lombardi said in a written summation he provided to The Times on Friday. "At times, I think that I will never recover from it. It is difficult to trust anyone right now-and you begin to question whether you can trust your own judgment. The only thing I can think of that would be worse would be suspecting your wife of cheating on you for five years and then finding out in fact it was true.

http://www.latimes.com/la-sp-sn-king...009-story.html

"I heard the rumors that Mike might have some off-ice issues, but I refused to believe that they were true despite some obvious signs.

What a load of crap. Lombardi and everyone in the league knew Richards had off-ice issues in Philadelphia. It's why the Flyers traded him in the first place. I would prefer he just be honest and tell the truth;

"I heard the rumors that Mike might have some off-ice issues in Philadelphia but we felt our team was one or two players away from contending for the cup and thought he would be worth the risk. His contract is risky but if I don't win a cup in the next few years I may not be around anyway to deal with the aftermath.

Richards ultimately did play a big role in our first Stanley Cup and a smaller role in a 2nd Stanley cup but his play was starting to drop off and I was faced with using a compliance buyout on him. I decided after coming off our 2nd cup win that we could coerce him to come to camp in better shape so he could get back to the player he used to be, I could avoid egg on my face, and we could use him to help us win a 3rd cup while our team window is wide open.

Fast forward to the end of the season and not only are we outside the playoffs but our gamble failed and Richards play dropped off to the point we couldn't even justify keeping him on the roster. I scoured the NHL in search of a trade partner but every other team wanted to give us their bad contract in return and we really need to save this cap space so I can sign another defenseman and re-sign Kopitar. I'm pretty upset now as I know I should have used a compliance buyout on him and now the team is stuck with this contract. I'm going to talk to the teams lawyers and see if there is any way we can get out of this deal.

During draft week we caught wind of a border incident and first thing I do is call the lawyers and ask them how we can use this. It's determined by the lawyers that it's not enough to be able to terminate the deal but we can make it sound like we were caught off guard that this guy wasn't an angel off the ice, talk constantly about how we tried helping him and how he continued downward in a spiral and claim on our own he's breached the contract and terminate it. The union will appeal but we have nothing to lose here as we are going to have to buy him out regardless and any breaks we can get in a settlement or arbitrator decision is well worth it for us."

[sureLoss]

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl-responds-to-ri...worms-1.374962

A source told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun that Richards’ settlement includes “non-precedent” language so other teams in similar positions may not cite the Richards case, though that may be common in many player-league settlements.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly answered to those concerns in a statement to LeBrun on Saturday.

“There was a bona fide dispute over the Club's exercise of its termination right pursuant to the SPC (Standard Player’s Contract),” Daly said in an email. “There was a grievance filed by the Union seeking resolution of that dispute. The Club is entitled to settle that grievance just as many Club-Player grievances are settled all the time. The CBA not only allows for those settlements, but provides for how the settlements should be accounted for from a Cap perspective. The settlement here is being accounted for in precise accordance with what the CBA contemplates.”

Furthermore, Daly said the NHL kept a close eye on this entire development ever since the Kings terminated Richards’ deal back in late June.

"The League actively monitored each stage of this dispute from the time of the initial contract termination to the point at which the case was settled, during which time we were in frequent contact with both the Club and the NHLPA,” Daly said. “If the settlement was simply a disguised way to get favorable Cap treatment, we certainly would have considered it to be a circumvention and acted accordingly. But this wasn't that. Far from it. There is absolutely zero concern that anything that transpired here could in any way be considered a `circumvention’ of the CBA. Anyone who believes to the contrary is clearly not privy to the facts.”

[sureLoss]

McKenzie speculation on Richards settlement amount:

Bob McKenzie @TSNBobMcKenzie
Just guesswork, but I suspect number somewhere in middle, around $8.35M, give or take a million. We'll see how close, or not, it ends up.

[Ashasx]

Insane.

[sureLoss]

Friedman says on average the cap hit of the settlement will be close to $500k

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

Friedman says on average the cap hit of the settlement will be close to $500k

Haha, what a joke. "Okay LA, the bad news is we're going to punish you for this, the good news is we'll spread it over 150 years so you won't even notice".

That's like giving a convict 4 years in jail, but he can serve it in 1 day per year segments.

[Cole436]

I'd sign Richards to the Flames for league minimum. No questions asked.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Yeah, that is a bit of a joke. Shouldn't be allowed to spread it out over that many years.