Mike Richards VI (UGH): The Armageddon Edition (MOD NOTE POST #1)

[Reclamation Project]

[mod edit]

MOD: I'd really recommend that EVERYONE read the site rules regarding libel PRIOR to posting.

Click to read more...

 

[tsanuri]

Between this and Voynov in a few days the Kings are going to be the talk everyplace. And we'll have to all watch we don't end up with infractions.

 

[Vic Vinegar]

Sick reference bro

 

[Ron*]

Mike Richards Part VI - You Think It's Dead, But It's Just Waking Up

 

[Herby]

Mike Richards will go down as one of the great rise and fall stories in team and even league history.

A little over five years ago Mike Richards won a Gold Medal with Team Canada at the Olympics.

If he does lose his money from the Kings hopefully he will write a book to make a few extra bucks. I bet you Mike Richards has some great stories from 10 years in the NHL.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Mike Richards VI (UGH): The Armageddon Edition

Insert fancy OP here, closing other thread, be back in a few.

Continue

 

[Captain Mittens*]

Merge!

 

[agentfouser]

Ugh, I hate it when I put time into posts that are at the very end of the last thread.

 

[Ron*]

Ugh, I hate it when I put time into posts that are at the very end of the last thread.

Cut and paste, my man.

 

[BamBam1031]

Okay, I chuckled at the title. A little.

 

[agentfouser]

Herby, to continue what we saying a moment ago:

When was the last time he played hardball with a player like this? Assuming your intuition is correct, of course. I wouldn't put myself into either of the camps you name. Lombardi strikes me a guy who genuinely believes a lot of the stuff that he says about community, and culture, and honor, and all that stuff; he also strikes me a careful, deliberate, and calculating professional at the same time. There are lots of his own quotes that illustrate his discomfort with those two facts.

Still, this strikes me as a bit out of his usual range. I can't think of examples offhand where he's really dirtied his hands like this, not to this extent. And, with the very real costs that you and Telos identified, I'm struggling to see this through Lombardi's own cost-benefit analysis. Is such an action really worth the buyout money and the few million in cap relief that it brings? Maybe it is, but it seems a steep price to pay.

 

[tsanuri]

I also certainly agree that Lombardi and Solomon know exactly what they are doing and he certainly found something that he feels justifies contract termination, but until we know what that is, the action is shrouded in mystery and does have a hint of underhandedness. It is inherent until what Richards did is revealed. Because it is so extremely difficult to successfully terminate a contract, it is virtually impossible to think of a plausible scenario that the Kings can prove beyond a shadow of a doubt in a convincing enough manner to an arbitrator to create a new precedent in the NHL where it is acceptable to discipline a player with contract termination.

No doubt what Richards did was considered serious by Kings staff, but Eric Macramella (TSN legal analyst) claimed to already know the reason and not believe that it was enough to justify contract termination. It doesn't sound THAT bad, which will give this whole thing the color of desperation coming from the Kings and an incredible coincidence that it is centered around the most obvious thorn currently in the NHL and the Kings' side. There are definite ethical questions to ask.

They obviously feel they have enough to risk it.
I know he was using examples from other sports as to how hard it is to void a contract. And it's very hard.

 

[Ron*]

Insert fancy OP here, closing other thread, be back in a few.

Continue

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: My grandchildren will be long dead of old age and this board will still be spawning Mike Richards threads.

Ad infinitum

 

[Ron*]

Wait a minute...

...if this "incident" happened at a border crossing, how come The Crossing Guard didn't know about it???

 

[Chain]

Mike Richards will go down as one of the great rise and fall stories in team and even league history.

A little over five years ago Mike Richards won a Gold Medal with Team Canada at the Olympics.

If he does lose his money from the Kings hopefully he will write a book to make a few extra bucks. I bet you Mike Richards has some great stories from 10 years in the NHL.

Well, Dean'll have another chapter for that book he's going to write when he retires.

 

[Herby]

Ron is right, the name Mike Richards will be talked about many years from now, I think some will remember the good, others the bad. Fitting that it will likely end in a courtroom or in front of an arbitrator.

I thought when he got his buyout money he would retire to his cottage, but he may still need to try and earn a couple million more in the next few years.

 

[onlyalad]

Dean had two teams talking trades. If this was just a clever way to save cap space he could have waited a couple of days before pulling the plug on two teams that were talking deals with no worries of the NHLPA fighting them.

According to ESPN, the Kings had to pull the plug on any potential trades with Edmonton or Calgary at the draft Friday night. Both teams were reportedly vying for Richards’ services.

"He came right over to me," Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli confirmed to ESPN.com. "He pulled me aside and said, 'Hey, Pete, this is going to come out. I had no idea. This is important you know so that talks [don't go any] further.'"

 

[Telos]

Just to re-iterate my point from the last thread, Eric Macramella (TSN legal analyst) claimed to know the reason behind the termination and believed that it wasn't enough to justify termination. Because it doesn't sound like the reason is THAT bad, this is going to have the aroma of underhandedness by the Kings organization until the true reason comes to light. It you team that with the fact that contract termination like this is unprecedented in the NHL, usually always has no hope to clear for virtually any reason, the result of this would open the flood gates on similar arguments, and it all just so happens to occur against the #1 thorn in our side and likely around the NHL, it just reeks of a desperate move. This is a nightmare scenario all around.

They obviously feel they have enough to risk it.
I know he was using examples from other sports as to how hard it is to void a contract. And it's very hard.

I agree on both sides. You have to think Lombardi feels he has a case, but on the other hand it is going to stink of a questionably ethical desperation move until the real reasons come to light. Just have to wait and see, but given the hill Lombardi has to climb to get it done it is going to be very unlikely we get out of this with a simple contract termination almost regardless of the reason, though we still need to know what that is, and who knows, maybe it is a slam dunk case, but unlikely, especially with some in the know with the experience saying it isn't enough.

 

[Captain Mittens*]

Wait a minute...

...if this "incident" happened at a border crossing, how come The Crossing Guard didn't know about it???

Ron brings it everyday.

 

[Ron*]

Just to re-iterate my point from the last thread, Eric Macramella (TSN legal analyst) claimed to know the reason behind the termination and believed that it wasn't enough to justify termination. Because it doesn't sound like the reason is THAT bad, this is going to have the aroma of underhandedness by the Kings organization until the true reason comes to light. It you team that with the fact that contract termination like this is unprecedented in the NHL, usually always has no hope to clear for virtually any reason, the result of this would open the flood gates on similar arguments, and it all just so happens to occur against the #1 thorn in our side and likely around the NHL, it just reeks of a desperate move. This is a nightmare scenario all around.

I give it two days. When you have clowns like Pierre McGuire out there that can't keep their yaps shut, its bound to come out, even in piecemeal.

 

[Reclamation Project]

Don Sweeney just traded Rask and a 1st for that crossing guard.

 

[Chain]

Wait a minute...

...if this "incident" happened at a border crossing, how come The Crossing Guard didn't know about it???

With that width, that crossing guard would make a heck of a goalie. Especially if they let him use the stop sign instead of a hockey stick.

 

[Raccoon Jesus]

Just to re-iterate my point from the last thread, Eric Macramella (TSN legal analyst) claimed to know the reason behind the termination and believed that it wasn't enough to justify termination. Because it doesn't sound like the reason is THAT bad, this is going to have the aroma of underhandedness by the Kings organization until the true reason comes to light. It you team that with the fact that contract termination like this is unprecedented in the NHL, usually always has no hope to clear for virtually any reason, the result of this would open the flood gates on similar arguments, and it all just so happens to occur against the #1 thorn in our side and likely around the NHL, it just reeks of a desperate move. This is a nightmare scenario all around.

I think that guy is a great thinker so I want to agree with that sentiment, but it's very bizarre to me that he's about the only one with that opinion. Everyone else has various shades of "OMG" even the most credible hockey writers. I will say that at least guys like Friedman have hedged with "I don't even want to speculate" but with the Richards/Newport camp allegedly locking it down this is just all so weird.

FWIW, the only two guys in my Tier I Hockey Writer Trust Circle are Friedman and McKenzie

 

[SettlementRichie10]

I'm baffled Eric Macramella has continued to be cited like the Supreme Court.

He's one lawyer working for a hockey station. His information could be incomplete, or outright false, or maybe his opinion itself is misinformed. I don't understand the validity of one random lawyer on a TV station, especially when everyone else, traditionally in the know, has refrained from sharing ANY opinion.

 

[KingsFan7824]

Desperate for what reason? A few million dollars? A couple extra years? I can buy that perhaps Lombardi is trying to take full advantage of a situation, but desperate to do it? The buy out isn't great, but it's not crippling, even a few years from now. There's no reason to go down this road, with this player, with this contract, with everyone watching, at the risk of being wrong, unless there's something there. Whatever it could possibly be.