He is a good player who lived up to his last contract in 1 (maybe 2 if you count this year) of the 5 years it existed. Pass, since he is likely looking for a similar contract and I doubt he wants to come here.
Quoted for truth.
Usually if New York goes HARD for them, it's a usually an omen it's a bad signing. Horrible signings, to horrible contracts, that don't work out the way they had hoped.
Have the NYR even signed a decent high profile player that made a significant impact since Gretzky??
There won't be a lot of teams that will be able to afford what he's worth and I'm sure that he understands that. He'll probably sign at a discount with a southern US team.
There won't be a lot of teams that will be able to afford what he's worth and I'm sure that he understands that. He'll probably sign at a discount with a southern US team.
I thought I read somewhere that Richards wanted to play for a team with stable ownership (wasn't a fan of the Tampa gongshow while he was there). If you look at the teams that can afford to pay him/have the cap room and have strong ownership, the field gets narrowed down pretty quickly, and I'm not sure too many southern teams would make the cut.
It's funny how so many people were talking about doing the rebuild right by building through the draft and not going whale hunting, yet here everyone is scampering for the harpoon.
I doubt Richards takes under $6M and I doubt he takes under 5 years. And I sure as hell doubt he takes either in Edmonton.
You can see that I'm still looking at staying the course. I wouldn't be looking at any major additions until at least the end of next season. IMO we need one more trip to the lottery (beyond this year) and drafting high in every subsequent round . This will also give us time to see what we have in guys like Pitlick, Hamilton, Lander, Hartikainen, Petry, Marincin, etc.
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Brad Richards is another UFA the Rangers can sign and have him not live up to his contract like Wade Redden, Scott Gomez, Chris Drury and Marion Gaborik
I thought I read somewhere that Richards wanted to play for a team with stable ownership (wasn't a fan of the Tampa gongshow while he was there). If you look at the teams that can afford to pay him/have the cap room and have strong ownership, the field gets narrowed down pretty quickly, and I'm not sure too many southern teams would make the cut.
Sounds like he wants to have his cake and eat it too considering that he doesn't want anything to do with markets like NY and Toronto.
Burke and Sather will be falling all over themselves to sign Richards.
Might be a good opportunity to fleece one of them out of a good young player/pick/prospect to take some salary off their hands.
That is where the real deal lies for the Oilers.
This is exactly what we need to be looking at. Tambo should have a deal worked out with Sather prior to the signing just to help them out like the nice guys we are
Sign Richards for 7 years @ 6m Cap hit(8,8,8,6,5,4,3) and draft Adam Larsson
Hall - Richards - Hemsky ....drool
Paajarvi - Gagner - Omark ...buttery soft minutes
Jones - Horcoff - Eberle hard working and defensively sound line
Jacques - Fraser - Brule ....meh
MacIntyre(I think he'll be back)
Whitney - Gilbert
Smid - Foster
Peckham - Larsson/Petry if Larsson stays in Sweden
Petry/Chorney
Dubnyk/Khabibulin
I think the fowards are fine, but our defense will be very suspect. I'm sure the Oilers will inquire at the very least. About a 1% chance of it happening but I just killed 15 minutes
Overpay to get him to sign here but short enough term that it won't affect the long-term cap picture. If it looks like we'll be contenders by the time his contract is up, we hope he signs for less to stay here.
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Overpay to get him to sign here but short enough term that it won't affect the long-term cap picture. If it looks like we'll be contenders by the time his contract is up, we hope he signs for less to stay here.
I would do this forsure, although I think the chances of this happening are slim at best. In 2012/2013 is when I expect us to really be in the mix for playoffs and Brad Richards would go along way to help us get there.
Overpay to get him to sign here but short enough term that it won't affect the long-term cap picture. If it looks like we'll be contenders by the time his contract is up, we hope he signs for less to stay here.
My only concern with this is that we could end our rebuild a year too soon and screw ourselves of having a top end player locked up for 7 years. This is not the time to chase after this type of a player unless you get him to sign a sweetheart deal which is very unlikely.
Overpay to get him to sign here but short enough term that it won't affect the long-term cap picture. If it looks like we'll be contenders by the time his contract is up, we hope he signs for less to stay here.
You know this really is not a bad Idea. But I would still want us drafting Rnh because if he bolts in 2 years we have a great up and coming team and back to not having a legit number 1.
Overpay to get him to sign here but short enough term that it won't affect the long-term cap picture. If it looks like we'll be contenders by the time his contract is up, we hope he signs for less to stay here.
Why would he take it? He'll probably get that on a long term deal with later years at a lesser rate to brind down the cap hit. In two years he'll have to search for another contract and with less time to even out the hit he probably doesnt make any more cash than if he'd signed a long term deal. Plus he risks a long term injury that could make it impossible to get another contract and cost him tens of millions.
More then that... give him a $5M bonus sometime in June before the CBA expires incase the CBA nullifies his contract based on league-max parameters. That's be enticing!
$10M first year, $5M bonus before June 2012, $5M the '12-'13 season.
This is exactly what we need to be looking at. Tambo should have a deal worked out with Sather prior to the signing just to help them out like the nice guys we are
Or, if richards signs in TO, do we show any interest in Komisarek? Sounds like coach soured on him and he barely played....wasn't he highly regarded in MTL?.... could he be our Regehr? Don't know, I can't watch Toronto...just throwing it out there.....
I wouldn't throw an offer his way. People need to look at the big picture, he wouldn't come here unless we overpayed massively and now is not the time to go big fish hunting.
My only concern with this is that we could end our rebuild a year too soon and screw ourselves of having a top end player locked up for 7 years. This is not the time to chase after this type of a player unless you get him to sign a sweetheart deal which is very unlikely.
Your definition of rebuild almost seems to be perpetual lottery picks until "content"-whenever that is. Gotta get outta the cellar sooner or later...preferably sooner.
Your definition of rebuild almost seems to be perpetual lottery picks until "content"-whenever that is. Gotta get outta the cellar sooner or later...preferably sooner.
You build your core with multi-million dollar players, add transitional players until your core is strong enough to win some games and then when you think the window is open to compete for the Stanley Cup, you go shopping. We're not at the shopping part yet. We're at the "add transitional players" part.
If we were to go and acquire an aging, overpriced (and frankly, overrated) player like Brad Richards for $8M per (which I don't believe is remotely possible for us) - where does that leave us for cap space in 2014? 2015?
Chicago is no longer a clear contender because they added players like Campbell before they had their core settled and signed.
Brad Richards is uniformly against every ideal of our current rebuild. This might be hyperbolic, but a bad signing of that magnitude could do a lot more to ensure we will NEVER be successful with the current crop of young talent than propel us into the next stratosphere.
Your definition of rebuild almost seems to be perpetual lottery picks until "content"-whenever that is. Gotta get outta the cellar sooner or later...preferably sooner.
Apparently you didn't read my posts or you would've already had your answer.
Per Bobby Mac, Brad Richards will not be offered a contract by the Stars prior to July 1st.
He's everything we need at center and speeds up our rebuild by a good two or three years. I personally would offer him $34M over four years ($8.5M cap hit) or toss him a retirement-type contract that pays him $5.77M until age 40 (structured 9.5 X 4, 4.75 X 2, 1.5 X 3).
Agreed.
Richards will see the potential this team has and might want to come here.
Hall - Richards - Hemsky
Paajarvi - Nougat Coco - Eberle
Jones - Horcoff - Omark
Gagner and Cogliano get bumped out. Unless Cogs plays wing or on the 4th line.
These lines are pretty competitive, they will especially be a year from now.
One of the best top lines, a good young second line with easy minutes, a solid shut-down line.
All we would need is a good defenseman.
Why has Vancouver come up a possible destination? They have Sedin at 6.1 and Kesler at 5. Wheres Richards supposed to fit?
Someone suggested Florida, but considering they were too cheap to sign their potential franchise player last season, it's safe to say they have no money to throw around.
Toronto is terrible, and if it's true that he doesn't like playing under a microscope then that rules them out.
Rangers seems like the most plausible choice
