Mike Richards III (Cleared waivers 1/27/15)

[kingsfan]

Hmmm, maybe agents should consider longevity of their clients contract in conjunction with their salary if they want their guy to remain in the NHL. A team like the Kings that may have better 3rd and 4th line centers in Shore and Stoll, would like to move Richards, but the rest of the NHL sees the contract as toxic waste.

Maybe, that wouldn't be the case if Richards' cap hit was $1.5M less a season. I know, a little far fetched, but something for the players and their agents to think about. Take less money and stick in the NHL when your play declines as it inevitably will.

Maybe GMs should stop being stupid and handing out 8-year deals to players in their late twenties as well. The Kopitar negotiations are going to be very interesting. If Dean is smart, h won't give him more than 5 years.

While I agree signing guys to deals of 8 years (or 12 like Richards did) is silly, no one would have predicted that Richards would fall off this far at the ripe old age of 29, unless he suffered a major injury, to which the LTIR should have been able to handle it. The fault isn't the contract so much, it's Richards performance, or lack there of at an age when he should be still producing at a high level.

Not that this isn't a fair offer, but I would rather keep our 1st and have Lombardi buy out Richards' contract if he can't get his act together in Manchester.

Tell that to the man who would have to hand over a $22 million cheque to buy him out, not to mention we'd still have him on the salary cap for something like 10 more years.

 

[KINGS17]

One deal can't make Dean gun shy about signing guys to fair market deals. And as much as Richards contract has been a disaster, the Kings have benefited from having Carter at such a low cap hit. And honestly, and you know this as well, Dean has to shoulder the vast majority of the blame that this is hanging over the Kings right now. Had Dean looked at things logically with his head instead of his heart he would have seen a guy who was the worst player on the team the second half of last year who was at a position the Kings were extremely strong in with Kopi and Carter. There was very little upside and a ton of downside to bringing back Richards. Even if MR righted the ship he was still only going to be the Kings 3C, and overpaid at that, but if he continued to regress he was going to be out of the league, which has happened.

I don't want him to be gun shy on doing market value, but I think he should go to school on what we are seeing regarding the decline of forwards after they hit 30 years of age. I don't want to see an 8-year deal for Kopitar.

 

[CowMix]

Will Richards be a first line center on the Monarchs?

 

[Bruinswillwin77]

lol so weird Richards is in Manchester, I have to go catch a game to see , considering I live one town away from Manchester

 

[Reclamation Project]

Will Richards be a first line center on the Monarchs?

****, I'd hope so.

 

[Herby]

I read an article today (too lazy to link it) that being in the AHL Richards would not have to donate 16% to the escrow payment and there is no personal income tax in New Hampshire while it is 13.3 here in California for people who make over 1 million dollars. So, Richards will be making about 30% more money to play in Manchester! The guy just keeps on winning.

Does he still have to pay union dues to the NHLPA?

 

[Reclamation Project]

California's got plenty of millionaires to milk the **** out of their money.

 

[Johnny Utah]

Will he be playing for the Ontario Monarchs next year? Lol.

 

[The Tikkanen]

Will he be playing for the Ontario Monarchs next year? Lol.

If he is he will be taxed accordingly.

 

[Pez68]

It's not a huge difference, but there are differences.

1) Toews is, in the opinion of many, a bit overpaid under his new contract. It eats up more of the cap than pretty much every other contract in the league.

2) Toews has Kane as his partner and they worked together to increase their collective bargaining power. This is no secret. This is why they sign the same deal. Meanwhile, Kopitar's friend and linemate Gaborik effectively took a paycut on the order of about a million to stay in LA. Obviously Gaborik is not Kane, but I think Kopitar realizes if they want to keep winning in the longrun, giving a bit personally is more likely to help that then trying to hardball his way to the biggest paycheck he can get.

3) Kopitar is one year further into his NHL career right now. At the point he signs his next contract he will be about 2 years longer in the NHL tooth than where Toews was when his new contract kicks in. Considering what we know about the average for players peak performance, that might mean a little.

4) Toews signed his contract this off-season when a lot of people thought the cap was going to be going up more in the next few years than it seems it is going to now. When he signed they just announced the new cap, which was below predictions. And now, it seems like that trend is going to continue even longer.

5) Kopitar is now married and has a kid. He moved his whole family from Slovenia to Los Angeles and bought his dad a house next to him. Toews is only from Winnipeg and didn't feel the need/desire to relocate his whole family. If Kopitar moves he's either going to be away from part of his family or have to relocate them again, which will be a pain in the ass for all involved.

6) Chicago isn't LA. Nothing against Chicago. It seems like a great city. But one of the big reasons people move to California is climate. No one moves to Chicago for the weather. You can't take that with you. Most of the cities with NHL teams don't have a climate as forgiving as LA. Most teams don't have a neighborhood like Manhattan Beach where all the players live and are walking distance to the beach. If Kopitar signed with a different team, it's a safe bet that most of the teams he could sign with aren't going to have a set up like that. That's an adjustment that he and his family members would have to make. Some of the ones that do have that kind of climate are going to be teams where he's taking a risk that his teammates might not be as likely to help him get to the cup again.

7) Last time Anze was up for a contract, didn't he basically tell his agent he didn't want to play hardball? I might be misremembering.

Huge differences? No. But add it all up, and I think if Kopi has the choice between going to another team for $13 million or sticking with the Kings for like $12, I think he stays.

I don't think Lombardi is going to try and play hardball with Anze, but I don't think Anze will play hardball either.

All good points, aside from #5/#6. Where these guys live is not as important as you make it out to be, because they aren't home much. In the offseason they are home, and during that time, your home can be anywhere. If he signs elsewhere, his family doesn't have to come with him. Yeah, you're giving up some time with the family during the regular season, but you're travelling or on the road more than half that time anyway.

I see Kopitar getting his money any way you cut it. If Lombardi doesn't want to go max length, he's going to pay for it in annual salary and it may very well exceed the Toews' contract. If he goes max length, I still think you're looking at at least $9M per...

 

[scramble91]

All of you are crazy.

Don't you know the Kings sent him down to add drama to the epix show for the outdoor game? It's gonna be a Hollywood ending when he gets recalled and scores the ovechtrick in Santa clara

On a serious note, I hope he can clear out the fog like Nash did.

 

[likid]

I don't want him to be gun shy on doing market value, but I think he should go to school on what we are seeing regarding the decline of forwards after they hit 30 years of age. I don't want to see an 8-year deal for Kopitar.

I'll write this a little bit from my personal point of view and lets say "Slovenian way of thinking".

We as nation are never seen as egoistic, "me first" people, we are always generally seen as nation, that rely on work, humble and team work. Thats why you see so many Slovenian national sports team to have so much success despite us beeing only 2 milions and generally you don't know many individuals by name. and we generally seek security. Our general way of thinking is that if you have for example 50 mio USD, you don't need additional 10 mio USD just to be for example top paid player on team...

And I believe all this you can see in Kopitar play on ice, he is not looking for individual rewards (although he would be very happy to receive them, but this is not his top priority), he'll always look first what is in his mind best for the team...

And thats why I think following will happen with next contract. He will only look for life long contract with Kings. He will insist on max years (8 years). And he'll be ready because of that to take lower AAV the he could receive on other team or even on Kings if this would be his primary goal.

It is possible that I judge him completly wrong but I would say that following him for so long and seeing his personality for such long period I don't think I missed by much.

 

[The Butcher]

I read somewhere that he was supposed to report to the Monarchs on Wednesday. Can anyone confirm this?

Also, if Richards takes this the right way he could wind up being a pretty good mentor to the team in Manchester. It would be invaluable to some of the younger guys if he can open up and share some of his wisdom with them.

Half full kinda stuff.

 

[PJ Kings Hockey]

I'll write this a little bit from my personal point of view and lets say "Slovenian way of thinking".

We as nation are never seen as egoistic, "me first" people, we are always generally seen as nation, that rely on work, humble and team work. Thats why you see so many Slovenian national sports team to have so much success despite us beeing only 2 milions and generally you don't know many individuals by name. and we generally seek security. Our general way of thinking is that if you have for example 50 mio USD, you don't need additional 10 mio USD just to be for example top paid player on team...

And I believe all this you can see in Kopitar play on ice, he is not looking for individual rewards (although he would be very happy to receive them, but this is not his top priority), he'll always look first what is in his mind best for the team...

And thats why I think following will happen with next contract. He will only look for life long contract with Kings. He will insist on max years (8 years). And he'll be ready because of that to take lower AAV the he could receive on other team or even on Kings if this would be his primary goal.

It is possible that I judge him completly wrong but I would say that following him for so long and seeing his personality for such long period I don't think I missed by much.

Thanks for the insight into Slovenian players, Likid. I joke about Kopitar rarely shooting, but in truth I admire his unselfishness and many other qualities of his. I hope you are right in your estimate and he will take a lifetime contract for less in order to retire as a King. I'd love to see Kopitar's number retired some day and hanging in the rafters.

 

[KingsFan7824]

I don't want to see an 8-year deal for Kopitar.

Good or bad, it's just time to accept that it's going to be something like that.

 

[TorstenFrings]

Well, according to the New Avery Rule (as referenced in Sean Avery's recent piece,) taxes take 50%, agents and management take 25%, and escrow takes 20%. So here's your 5%. Go wild!

I admittedly got bored with that one after three or four paragraphs, but in those he only seemed to recount all the new cars he bought. That really inspired my pity for him.

 

[Ron*]

I don't want him to be gun shy on doing market value, but I think he should go to school on what we are seeing regarding the decline of forwards after they hit 30 years of age. I don't want to see an 8-year deal for Kopitar.

Good or bad, it's just time to accept that it's going to be something like that.

They gave a 7-year deal to Gaborik and dude turns 33 next month.

After that, you think Kopitar, at age 27, is going to put up with the Kings hemming and hawing whether the deal is 5 - 6 years?

You better hope it's just eight. He might want ten or more.

 

[driller1]

You better hope it's just eight. He might want ten or more.

He can't. 8 years is max length of a contract under new CBA.

 

[Ron*]

He can't. 8 years is max length of a contract under new CBA.

Cool, I stand corrected.

 

[Reaper45]

If I was GM I'd have doctor's probing MR with a fine tooth comb looking for signs of a LTIR injury.

 

[The Tikkanen]

If I was GM I'd have doctor's probing MR with a fine tooth comb looking for signs of a LTIR injury.

He's lost his mojo, no doctor will be able to diagnose that.

 

[CTKingsFan]

He's lost his mojo, no doctor will be able to diagnose that.

Dr. Evil could.

 

[PJ Kings Hockey]

I admittedly got bored with that one after three or four paragraphs, but in those he only seemed to recount all the new cars he bought. That really inspired my pity for him.

If you stop at the beginning, you'll miss the point. When he first started out out, he wasted $1 million on stuff, not realizing that he'd end up with much less of his salary than he'd thought. He advises NHL players to get financial planning advice from experts (he was lucky enough to be advised b a friend who went into the field) and save every bit of their tax-free per diem they get when they're on the road. He doesn't want players to be surprised when they end up with much, much less than they expected and not have much to last them decades. Surprisingly, the $96 per day per diem can add up if not touched and provide a little nest egg.

Anyway, back to Richards. Is anyone else planning on tuning into the TV or radio broadcast of the next Monarchs game? Hoping we'll see Richards on fire?

 

[TorstenFrings]

If you stop at the beginning, you'll miss the point. When he first started out out, he wasted $1 million on stuff, not realizing that he'd end up with much less of his salary than he'd thought. He advises NHL players to get financial planning advice from experts (he was lucky enough to be advised b a friend who went into the field) and save every bit of their tax-free per diem they get when they're on the road. He doesn't want players to be surprised when they end up with much, much less than they expected and not have much to last them decades. Surprisingly, the $96 per day per diem can add up if not touched and provide a little nest egg.

Anyway, back to Richards. Is anyone else planning on tuning into the TV or radio broadcast of the next Monarchs game? Hoping we'll see Richards on fire?

I am sure he has great financial advice for people who are unable to recognize on their own that $96 per day can add up to nice money fast. Jack Johnson should give him a call.

 

[PJ Kings Hockey]

I am sure he has great financial advice for people who are unable to recognize on their own that $96 per day can add up to nice money fast. Jack Johnson should give him a call.

Seriously? It's a straightforward and interesting piece. If you know beforehand that something is going to earn your contempt, move on. Skip it. You know what, I assumed these athletes made a lot more than they did, and didn't realize that saving their lunch money would have that much of an impact. Most of these athletes barely have a high school education. I'm no financial genius either. These athletes make more money than I do while they're playing but I don't assume they have any fewer problems. Some probably have more. (With multiple concussions, some will never be the same.)

Sometimes the cynicism makes me shake my head.