And so the Rangers essentially decided to grant Brad Richards amnesty for 2012-13 rather than use their lone remaining amnesty buyout on the 33-year-old center.
The decision, communicated to Richards yesterday afternoon in a telephone conversation with general manager Glen Sather and incoming coach Alain Vigneault, essentially postpones the inevitable for one year.
For regardless of the degree to which Richards rebounds from his miserable 2012-13, which concluded with him in street clothes as a healthy scratch for the final two games of the Boston series, the cap-recapture penalties that loom down the road will leave the Rangers with no choice next June.
This is risky business for the Blueshirts on a couple of levels: a) If Richards suffers an injury next year from which he has not recovered by June 30 (and/or would require postseason surgery), he is ineligible to be bought out in what will be the final amnesty buyout opportunity; and b) By retaining Richards’ $6.67 million cap hit, the Rangers have severely limited their options on the summer free-agent and trade markets.
Meaning that the personnel who didn’t play well enough last time around with John Tortorella behind the bench is pretty much going to be the same personnel Vigneault directs in 2013-14.
Richards yesterday respectfully declined the opportunity to respond to management’s decision to provide him the opportunity for an encore. Earlier in the week, as he awaited the decision, he told The Post in an email, “Things will be better next year wherever I am.”
There is no doubt that Richards, a creature of habit, suffered because the uncertainty of the lockout compromised, if not destroyed, his preseason preparation. His game disintegrated and so did the center’s relationship with Tortorella.
“I didn’t feel normal all season,” he said on breakup day. “There are a thousand things it could have been, but I’m not going to dwell on that now.”
A buyout seemed etched in stone that day. But Tortorella’s firing opened the door for the Rangers to revisit the matter, and Vigneault’s hiring created a clean slate for everybody.
Including Richards, who needs to be what the Rangers envisioned when he signed in the first place two years ago.
* The Blueshirts appear to have approximately $2 million of wiggle room under the cap, assuming the signings of Ryan McDonagh, Derek Stepan, Carl Hagelin and Mats Zuccarello. In other words, say goodbye to pending unrestricted free agent Ryane Clowe.