Jason,
I don't want to get in trouble again by turning this into a Mike Richards thread.
But MR's icetime has decreased each month of the season, from 18:25 in October to 16:33 in December to 15:52 in April. So while his season average is still relatively high, his icetime has been cut pretty significantly from where it was at the beginning of the year, because despite what you want to say, he is a bottom six player right now, largely because he has been awful in a top 6 role since December.
@Driller. Pittsburgh is paying $18 million to two former MVP centers. I have no problem paying Kopitar and Carter the $13 million they make (which likely jumps up to close to $15 with Kopi's extension), but it's not a positive to be paying a 3rd and 4th line center as much as the Kings are currently paying their 3rd and 4th line centers. And you mention Carter sliding back over to wing, why would the Kings want to do that, they have no one else right now who is capable of centering the 2nd line at a high level. Carter looked terrible playing 2nd line RW after the Gaborik trade, his game only started to take off again when he was moved to center and given some capable players to work with in the two young kids.
@NoseofSutter, Yes Williams, Stoll and Regehr are UFA's after next season. But you are incorrect in saying it's freed up cap space, because the players have to be replaced. Sure, Stoll can be replaced on the cheap, but it's not going to be cheap to replace the first line rw and the tough minutes that Regehr has been playing lately. And then you factor in that Martinez (UFA), Muzzin, Toffoli, Pearson, Clifford and ofcourse the big one Kopitar the year after.
You guys may be able to find the cap space for next season (I agree it's realistic), but things start to get really dicey beyond that. And if DL knows he is going to need to unload one of those contracts then a strong case is made to do it this summer because he can still likely get value for both players. If they both play in 2015 like they did this year there will be very little value on either one.