TSN: Brad Richards NOT being bought out

[Green Blob*]

This is just stupid and lazy.

How is it lazy??

 

[Gardner McKay]

The good news... if Richards returns to form, the Rangers center depth actually becomes very damn good with Stepan moving to 2, and Brassard to 3, Boyle to 4.

The bad news.. He gets injured and the team is in deep **** for quite a while unless the cap goes up substantially..

In the other forum you don't seem to give a **** if he gets injured saying that the chances of it happening are so slim. Why the Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde act?

 

[broadwayblue]

Just for the sake of it, Richards with 80 pts next season. Book it!

That's exactly what I'm afraid of. I want him to be better, but not great...because he really needs to go next July.

Then again, here are his point totals the last 4 years:

2009-10 91pts
2010-11 77pts
2011-12 66pts
2012-13 34pts (~60pts pro-rated)

So he really performed close to expected. What is he going to realistically give us next season? 22g/38a-60 points? Can we really expect more than that from him at this point? Sad thing is on the Rangers that would have him among the top 3 on team scoring. But with the continued downward progression and his huge cap hit can we afford to keep him around for the next half dozen years?

 

[mike14]

I don't, but I can give you plenty of example of players who are injured who wouldn't be eligible for a buyout.

Heatley
Havlat
Hossa
Bergeron
Samuelsson
Gaborik
Callahan
Hagelin
Del Zotto
Staal

That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are lot of other players around the league who needed one surgery or another after the season. 3 of the players on this list (Heatley, Havlat, Samuelsson) would be bought out this summer if they were healthy, but their teams are stuck with them.

Cheers. What about about if they just had a soft-tissue injury? No surgery but needs about a month to heal. Would that stop a buyout?

 

[free0717]

Its too late now, but I would have bought out Brad. We need a Top 6 RW and a 3rd pairing RD. On one year contracts I would have gotten Iggie or Jagr and Zidlicky.

 

[GAGLine]

Cheers. What about about if they just had a soft-tissue injury? No surgery but needs about a month to heal. Would that stop a buyout?

It may. Look at Staal. His eye isn't 100%, but the cut has healed. It's a bit of a gray area. Every player has bumps and bruises that need time to heal. No one is avoiding a buyout because they got hit in the mouth with a puck on the last day of the season and lost a tooth. But if they aren't medically cleared to play during the buyout window, then they can't be bought out. That's the best definition I can give you.

 

[Green Blob*]

Its too late now, but I would have bought out Brad. We need a Top 6 RW and a 3rd pairing RD. On one year contracts I would have gotten Iggie or Jagr and Zidlicky.

You can want all you want, but you would never get Iggy on a 1 year contract and likely not Zid either.

 

[McSauer]

I have serious doubts about this team competing this year with Richards still in the lineup...I really look forward to wasting ANOTHER year of Hank...

Legit losing sleep over this awful, awful decision...

 

[Tawnos]

Do you (or anyone else) have the actual wording on what constitutes an 'injury' for purposes like this? With buyouts happening directly after the season is finished, it seems likely that most players will have 'aches and pains', how serious does the injury have to be in order to not allow a buyout?

I looked a bunch through the CBA to find the justification on not being bought out while injured, but didn't find anything directly. I'm assuming that it has to do with players being entitled to the full benefit of their contract if they were determined to be unfit to play from a hockey injury. That section of the SPC also spells out the procedure related to injuries. I'm guessing here a little, but the unfit/fit question is probably central to whether or not a player can be bought out. There's a process if the team and players disagree as well.

 

[LaffyTaffyNYR]

In the other forum you don't seem to give a **** if he gets injured saying that the chances of it happening are so slim. Why the Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde act?

I never said I didn't give a **** if he gets injured. I said the chances are slim.. but I DO realize the implications it would cause if it did happen

 

[broadwayblue]

I have serious doubts about this team competing this year with Richards still in the lineup...I really look forward to wasting ANOTHER year of Hank...

Legit losing sleep over this awful, awful decision...

Hopefully he can at least contribute as a 3rd line center. Sure, he'd be paid far too much, but as long as he can produce that's all that matters. Best case he elevates his game to a top 6 player and we're in much better shape. We're only worse off if the team lost out on signing a UFA that would have been an upgrade at some position due to keeping Brad around. I agree, they should have let him go...but at this point we just have to hope he doesn't suck.

 

[LaffyTaffyNYR]

Lets all be real though, if the rangers did let Richards go, sather would have just spent the money on the UFA market, did we really want that either? Richards might be the lesser of 2 evils.

 

[RGY]

There are no upgrades over richards on the free agent market. You cannot assume he will get hurt. Another year of richards is not bad.

 

[Fitzy]

Stepan-Brassard-Richards-Boyle

That's a good center core to go into the season with. Looks like NYR are looking at a minimal turnover, unless Del Zotto is moved. Big change was the coach.

 

[Rangers ftw]

I don't, but I can give you plenty of example of players who are injured who wouldn't be eligible for a buyout.

Heatley
Havlat
Hossa
Bergeron
Samuelsson
Gaborik
Callahan
Hagelin
Del Zotto
Staal

That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are lot of other players around the league who needed one surgery or another after the season. 3 of the players on this list (Heatley, Havlat, Samuelsson) would be bought out this summer if they were healthy, but their teams are stuck with them.

Maybe obvious, but why can't injured players be bought out? Insurance reasons or because of NHLPA?

 

[Captain Monglobster]

I'm really confused by people touting our center depth right now. Richards is ineffective in a bottom 6 role no matter what his fitness. He is not a checking center, he can't forecheck, hes bad along the boards.

If he isn't performing well enough to play top 6 minutes he is a literal waste of space. Not to mention this probably means another season of him on the PP which I thought I had seen the last of after he was scratched. Give me Miller with all his growing pains over Richards.

 

[GAGLine]

Maybe obvious, but why can't injured players be bought out? Insurance reasons or because of NHLPA?

I'm not sure exactly why, but it's part of the rules. I guess we just have to pray that Richards doesn't get hurt.

 

[Tawnos]

Maybe obvious, but why can't injured players be bought out? Insurance reasons or because of NHLPA?

I believe it's against federal workplace regulations. You're firing a guy and giving him a severance package while being injured from performing his job.

 

[Beacon]

There are no upgrades over richards on the free agent market. You cannot assume he will get hurt. Another year of richards is not bad.

This.

Brad is still a 60-point center. Buying a guy like that on the UFA market would mean giving someone a contract as big as Brad's. His cap hit was lowered due to it being signed under the old CBA, but signing a new 60-point 33-year-old center would likely cost $6 per for a half dozen years.

Instead, we get a quality second liner at worst (and maybe he returns to first line form) for a year while Lindberg gets ready to take over third line duty, and hopefully Step and Brass prove capable of centering the first two lines.

 

[cd211]

let me ask you guys this.. if you knew richards would give us 60Pts min. the next 4yrs at least, would you still buy him out?

 

[SA16]

Yes.

 

[bleedblue94]

I believe it's against federal workplace regulations. You're firing a guy and giving him a severance package while being injured from performing his job.

it can't be bc of federal law, it was well documented during the lockout that the dynamics of the nhl and nhlpa side stepped federal law since technically a salary cap is a federal violation. the no buyout for injured players is something the nhlpa probably demanded so guys w longer term injuries wouldn't get bought out and then either miss out on jobs or be muscled into taking smaller contracts bc of health uncertainty which would have an indirect potential affect of holding salaries down or trapping guys into one year deals

 

[LaffyTaffyNYR]

let me ask you guys this.. if you knew richards would give us 60Pts min. the next 4yrs at least, would you still buy him out?

Yes, only because of one reason.. He's making 1M in the final 3 years of his contract. Will someone who is over 35+ want to be playing an 82 game season making only 1M?
.

 

[The Perfect Paradox]

The incompetence that management is showing with this move is unbelievable. Why play with fire and risk being stuck with this contract if he undergoes a serious injury? Do they seriously think this roster has enough offensive firepower to compete with the best teams in the league?

If he bounces back, great, but it still means ****. The new rules in the CBA make his contract a financial death wish regardless if he produces 70-75 points per season. ****.

 

[alkurtz]

Certainly a horrible decision from a short term financial point of view as our options for this year have been narrowed considerably. The long term consequences are perhaps not as dire as, if most prognosticators are correct, within a few years that cap may be pushing 80 million.

Certainly a horrible decision from a hockey point of view: BR is a player with diminishing skills, a trend that is likely to continue. His performance was so bad that he was hurting the team and he was benched during the playoffs.

But, if at heart, hockey is our entertainment and our distraction from daily life, an escape for a few hours into a world outside our own, then here we have a fascinating story to watch unfold.

Can a formerly near elite player with diminishing skills somehow transform his game in a way so as to be a productive performer?

Can a formerly near elite player be so motivated by this last years horrific performance, so embarrassed by the trashing of a formerly impeccable reputation to the point that his team was thinking about discarding him into the trash heap, that he can somehow regain a modicum of his past status and skill?

Stay tuned......only the coming season will tell and it will be simply fascinating to watch and certainly give us fodder for argument and discussion.

I wanted BR gone and am disappointed we are keeping him. But now that the decision has been made, I am certainly hoping that he somehow succeeds. I have major doubts that he can remake himself through better training, diet, etc. I don't think this can end anyway but poorly.

But BR's tale will be of the major talking points for the 13-14 season and it will be fascinating to watch.