The Los Angeles Kings have placed two-time Stanley Cup winning centre Mike Richards on waivers today. The Kings, facing a cap crunch this season, attempted to deal Richards but by Sunday night any talk of such trades had fallen through. The Kings will now hope that someone bites on the centre on waivers.
The 29-year-old is in the worst offensive season of his career. Often being relegated to the Kings fourth line, he has just five goals and 10 assists in 47 games this year.
Richards was acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers before the 2011-2012 season in a trade that sent Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn and a second-round draft pick to Philadelphia. In his four years with Los Angeles, Richards has only surpassed 40 points in a season twice, with 44 points in 2011-12 being his highest as a King. Its a far cry from his time in Philadelphia where Richards scored 30 goals twice, and 28 goals a third season, and scored over a point per game in both 2007-08 and 2008-09.
Richards has five years left, after this season, on a contract with a cap hit of $5.75 million per year. He’s being paid $7 million this season, with $6 million, $5.5 million, $4.5 million, $3 million and $3 million due in each of the following years.
If a team were to claim Richards on waivers, they would assume the remaining five-plus years of his contract as well as the cap hits. If unclaimed the Kings would be able to send Richards to their AHL affiliate, the Manchester Monarchs. Such a move would save the Kings $925,000 in cap space per season (on a pro-rated basis this season).
Richards was also a member of Team Canada’s Olympic Gold Medal winning team in Vancouver 2010.
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