Brad Richards Part III: The Buy-Out!

[Chimpradamus]

Buy Bad Richards out ASAP. Don't "give him another chance". You all know if he's kept next season, he breaks his leg and makes himself unbuyoutable, which means the team is completely screwed until 2019 and can look forward to having the most expensive 4th liner on the planet for the next 6 years or so. Or swallowing a gigantic cap hit the hard way for a player who's not even playing in a world where the cap will keep shrinking.

If he's not serious enough to keep himself in good shape while being paid $7m a year to do so, even during a lockout, I don't know if that's the kind player you want to carry you in the playoffs anyway.

 

[More 2004]

He always struck me as a player that needed to steer clear of the media attention. If he is bought out I hope Tampa brings him in for a 1-2 year deal at 3 mil per..

 

[Pepe Silvia]

Please buy him out. We'd love to have him in Chicago. He still has plenty of talent and would be a great fit at 2C. If Dreger is right, 3 years at $3M/yr would be a steal

 

[nevesis]

Please buy him out. We'd love to have him in Chicago. He still has plenty of talent and would be a great fit at 2C. If Dreger is right, 3 years at $3M/yr would be a steal

You will be severely disappointed with him. He absolutely sucks.

 

[Chimpradamus]

Please buy him out. We'd love to have him in Chicago. He still has plenty of talent and would be a great fit at 2C. If Dreger is right, 3 years at $3M/yr would be a steal

That would be hilarious. Like a Wade Redden light. Signing a player on reputation alone and then having a $3m 4th liner - who's a bad 4th liner - for 3 years.

 

[Tawnos]

Buy Bad Richards out ASAP. Don't "give him another chance". You all know if he's kept next season, he breaks his leg and makes himself unbuyoutable, which means the team is completely screwed until 2019 and can look forward to having the most expensive 4th liner on the planet for the next 6 years or so. Or swallowing a gigantic cap hit the hard way for a player who's not even playing in a world where the cap will keep shrinking.

If he's not serious enough to keep himself in good shape while being paid $7m a year to do so, even during a lockout, I don't know if that's the kind player you want to carry you in the playoffs anyway.

The injury issue is the ONLY issue here. He needs to be bought out this summer.

 

[Pepe Silvia]

That would be hilarious. Like a Wade Redden light. Signing a player on reputation alone and then having a $3m 4th liner - who's a bad 4th liner - for 3 years.

Haha this post is even more hilarious. Don't be so damn fickle. Players have bad years, but it's a risk worth taking IMO, especially at that price.

 

[Tawnos]

Haha this post is even more hilarious. Don't be so damn fickle. Players have bad years, but it's a risk worth taking IMO, especially at that price.

Richards has had two bad years and one good month and a half in between.

 

[Crease]

Haha this post is even more hilarious. Don't be so damn fickle. Players have bad years, but it's a risk worth taking IMO, especially at that price.

His skills have been visibly deteriorating since late 2010. He's not snake bitten. It's not simply been a down year for him.

 

[HockeyBasedNYC]

Bobby Holik
Donald Brashear
Valerie Kamensky
Vladimir Malakhov
Brian Skrudland
Mike Keane
Theo Fluery
Derek Boogaard
Darius Kasparaitus
Scott Gomez
Chris Drury
Wade Redden
Michal Rozsival
etc.

and now its more than official...

Brad Richards

 

[NYRKindms]

Here is a hypothetical for you guys. Let' say we don't buy out Richard$ this summer, instead we give him another shot at the 2013-2014 season, and he has a pretty solid-ish performance, let's say 25 ish goals and 30-40 ish assists and he is in the 60-70 point range. Say we make the playoffs, have a pretty decent run and brad contributes throughout. Do we still buy him out even though in theory he has returned to being a contributor or do we still buy him out in the summer of 2014 knowing that he is probably going to continue to decline?

Basically if we give him another shot and he has a bounce back season, would you guys still buy him out and be on the hook for the rest of the contract?

The new CBA signed Brad Richards fate as soon as it was ratified. I truly believe this to be true.

With the way the new CBA has the cap recapture crap structured Brad Richards was doomed as soon as it was signed. It doesn't make any difference how well he plays. From a pure financial perspective you cannot have him retire early and have the team subjected to a massive cap hit in the later years. It would be irresponsible for the Rangers to retain his services

If the rules stayed the same under the old CBA there isn't a risk in the final years of that contract. But with the new rules ? You HAVE to amnesty him. You cannot have those contract terms hanging over the organization

I think even if he was playing at the top of his game he would be a goner. He surely cannot be the only long term signed contract that is going to be amnestied for pure financial considerations.

I think Brad realized his days in NY were numbered as soon as the season started. I think it probably has impacted his play as well. He probably figured he could come to NY and then retire. Unfortunately the terms of his contract were altered after signing it and this is the end result.

What would be more interesting is if he was playing AWESOME hockey how the fans would react when he gets bought out anyway.

 

[HockeyBasedNYC]

Buy Bad Richards out ASAP. Don't "give him another chance". You all know if he's kept next season, he breaks his leg and makes himself unbuyoutable, which means the team is completely screwed until 2019 and can look forward to having the most expensive 4th liner on the planet for the next 6 years or so. Or swallowing a gigantic cap hit the hard way for a player who's not even playing in a world where the cap will keep shrinking.

If he's not serious enough to keep himself in good shape while being paid $7m a year to do so, even during a lockout, I don't know if that's the kind player you want to carry you in the playoffs anyway.

I agree with Chimp, the negatives outweigh the positives. And when you have this much wrapped up financially in one player, even if the negatives slightly outweigh the positives you gotta take the buyout option for all of the reasons he pointed out - not to mention the biggest of them all...

The Rangers were GIVEN 2 GET OUT JAIL FREE CARDS. Use them both. That's never going to happen again. Even if Richards had an OK year, it wouldnt be wrong to entertain the notion given his age and the young players on this team that you need to retain and sign longterm.

 

[Pepe Silvia]

His skills have been visibly deteriorating since late 2010. He's not snake bitten. It's not simply been a down year for him.

I don't disagree, but he put up 66 points his first season in NY. Well worth it at $3M/yr IMO. Playing on a line with Kane and not having the pressure of being the 1C might do him some good

 

[Off Sides]

Bobby Holik
Donald Brashear
Valerie Kamensky
Vladimir Malakhov
Brian Skrudland
Mike Keane
Theo Fluery
Derek Boogaard
Darius Kasparaitus
Scott Gomez
Chris Drury
Wade Redden
Michal Rozsival
etc.

and now its more than official...

Brad Richards

Kotalik

This is exactly the issue the Rangers have had. Signing mediocre to less than average players throughout the years. Never naturally bad enough to draft the best of the players, never good enough to really compete for championships.

Bring on the calls for Iginla and Gonchar.

 

[FATCHAMALA11]

Bobby Holik
Donald Brashear
Valerie Kamensky
Vladimir Malakhov
Brian Skrudland
Mike Keane
Theo Fluery
Derek Boogaard
Darius Kasparaitus
Scott Gomez
Chris Drury
Wade Redden
Michal Rozsival
etc.

and now its more than official...

Brad Richards

Theo was great.

 

[Overcast]

It could provide a jolt to the rest of the team who have looked like crap. We need something major to change, we can't keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result, it's a 3-0 series right now.

Being down 2-0 for the second time this post-season didn't provide enough of a shock? For some reason, everyone keeps saying "THIS is the event that will light a fire under this team", "THIS is the event that will really get them going", "THIS is the shake up that will motivate them", "THIS is the do-or-die game they have to show up for." How come this team can't consistently play with that fire? Why is it only during the last 30 seconds of a game when they're losing is it they suddenly remember they should be trying to score and win the game? I'm so tired of waiting for the next "this." Just like Richards and Nash and Gaborik were THE moves to bring this team to the next level. Not saying that we could have known how everyone would have turned out, but we put far too much stock into these new guys to absolutely improve the team.

And we think the Isles have a bad mentality or have a losing culture? We don't even have a mentality or culture to begin with. Just a bunch of chickens running around with their heads chopped off.

 

[Whiplash27]

I'd say keep him another year since they can always buy him out the following year. Who knows? Maybe he wakes up next year after taking this year off.

 

[NYR Viper]

I don't disagree, but he put up 66 points his first season in NY. Well worth it at $3M/yr IMO. Playing on a line with Kane and not having the pressure of being the 1C might do him some good

Hey man, you do realize we watch the games right? Richards was extremely lucky with some bounces he got last year. He was lucky this year to have many of his shots go in on weird bounces. He has been lucky to play with players like Nash and Gaborik who accept a pass and do a lot of the work themselves.

The next team to sign Richards will be disappointed. He is weak and slow at this point which causes all of his passes to be off.

You can try it, but don't say we didn't warn you.

 

[Canucks LB]

Buy him out, I am sure tons of teams will give him 3/4 mil a year.

 

[NYR Viper]

Buy him out, I am sure tons of teams will give him 3/4 mil a year.

Please do. So we can all laugh.

 

[tjs252]

My line of thinking with Richards is this:

If he were a free agent coming off this season, and especially given this year's free agent class, would we give him a one year deal? (I'd wager, yes).

If his contract were slated to expire after the 2013/14 season, would there be such a clamoring to buy him out? (I'd wager, no).

For all intents and purposes, he's signed to a one year deal for 2013/14 with a 5 year option. As the team figures to be constructed next year, he gives us the best option to be competitive even with all the problems he's shown this year. There isn't a true 1/2 C option on the market, and it's better to figure out if he still is one with Brassard / Stepan as the safety net (alternatively, if those two are a 1 / 2 C with Richards as the safety net).

I don't necessarily mean this the way it's going to come out, but he's not really the thing holding this team back. He's certainly not helping, but there are too many question marks up and down this roster for me to think it's a good idea to create a new one (center depth).

 

[NYR Viper]

My line of thinking with Richards is this:

If he were a free agent coming off this season, and especially given this year's free agent class, would we give him a one year deal? (I'd wager, yes).

If his contract were slated to expire after the 2013/14 season, would there be such a clamoring to buy him out? (I'd wager, no).

For all intents and purposes, he's signed to a one year deal for 2013/14 with a 5 year option. As the team figures to be constructed next year, he gives us the best option to be competitive even with all the problems he's shown this year. There isn't a true 1/2 C option on the market, and it's better to figure out if he still is one with Brassard / Stepan as the safety net (alternatively, if those two are a 1 / 2 C with Richards as the safety net).

I don't necessarily mean this the way it's going to come out, but he's not really the thing holding this team back. He's certainly not helping, but there are too many question marks up and down this roster for me to think it's a good idea to create a new one (center depth).

If he gets injured next year, the Rangers can not buy him out. That is a MAJOR issue.

 

[JESSEWENEEDTOCOOK]

Buy him out, I am sure tons of teams will give him 3/4 mil a year.

lirl

Would laugh if a team signed him to a five dollar contract.

He sucks.

 

[Ail]

I know this will not be a popular opinion but I honestly believe he was dogging it on purpose for a good portion of the season. It makes total sense for him from a retirement and monetary stand point. He knows as soon as the CBA is signed that there are two amnesty buyouts, and the only other person that makes sense besides Redden is himself. So he can either play well and spend the half-season plus 2013-2014 in NY before being bought out, or he can put in so little effort that management can't buy him out soon enough and hit the FA market one year earlier on top of getting his full payday from the Rangers in a lump sum. I know people like to think professional athletes only "play to win" and would never purposely restrict their game, but from the perspective of a guy who is at the twilight of his career and wants to make as much as he can before retiring you have to at least think he, and probably his agent, had this discussion. I think most players would take the high-road, but some would not.

I see some people say he was already taking a downturn last season, but I disagree. The guy played pretty well for joining a new team and was the best player in the post-season not named Lundqvist. He earned his money. He had 9 GWG, 66 points. That's not really stats that scream regression. His play this year was so flat out bad most nights you find it hard to believe how he played last year.

If he plays well next year people will blame the lockout, if he sucks again they'll stick to the original argument of age setting in. I don't buy it.

 

[Thirty One]

I fully expect Richards to be a lot better next season than this season, but you just cannot risk the possibility of injury.