Like ripping off a Band-Aid, the Rangers did not delay their inevitable conclusion of using their final amnesty buyout on veteran center Brad Richards, making it official on Friday his time on Broadway was over.
It was exactly a week earlier Richards was still the alternate captain for the Blueshirts, taking the ice in Los Angeles against the Kings in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals. The Rangers lost that heartbreaking game in double-overtime, ending their season.
As was expected, it also ended Richards’ time with the Rangers.
“Tough last few days,” Richards said in a statement released by the team Friday. “I loved being a Ranger and living in New York and playing at MSG in front of great fans.”
The benefit for general manager Glen Sather in making this move is that Richards’ $6.67 million annual salary-cap hit charge, which was set to run for the next six seasons through 2019-20, is now taken off the books. They have to pay him the remaining money on his original nine-year, $60 million contract — which was front-loaded and had just $20.667 million remaining, plus $8 million in signing bonuses — but it no longer counts to the team’s cap charge.
For a franchise with many key players from this year’s team whose contract statuses are in limbo, that allows some breathing room for the opening of free agency on July 1.
“This was an extremely difficult decision to make because of how much respect I have for him,” Sather said in the same statement. “Brad’s leadership and guidance for our young players was invaluable to the organization. We are grateful to have had the professionalism and experience he brought as an example for our team to follow.”
The Rangers now are out of amnesty buyouts after using their first on defenseman Wade Redden before last season.
Richards had a no-movement clause in his contract that he waived in order to accept the buyout, otherwise the Rangers would have had to place him on waivers and have him clear before they could let him go. The biggest reason his salary was impossible to keep was because of a clause in the newest collective bargaining agreement that penalizes teams for a player who retires before his contract is up.
The 34-year-old Richards would have been 40 when his contract expired, and judging from his play the past two seasons, it didn’t seem like getting that far was a sure thing.
“Glen Sather, the management, and the owner, Mr. [James] Dolan, are all class acts,” Richards said. “I want to thank them for letting me be a part of New York life and the Rangers family. With this decision finalized, I can now look forward to starting the next chapter of my career.”
Richards is now an unrestricted free agent and likely will garner a nice two- or three-year deal for himself on the open market. He can’t re-sign with the Rangers under rules of the amnesty buyout.
Richards won a Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2004, and during that run was the Conn Smythe Trophy winner for postseason MVP. Yet he was a long way from that level of play the past two seasons with the Rangers, calling his lowest career moment that of 2013 postseason, when then-coach John Tortorella made him a healthy scratch for Games 4 and 5 of a second-round playoff series against the Bruins, ending that season with indignity.
This year, new coach Alain Vigneault made him a fourth-line winger for most of Games 4 and 5 of the Cup finals against the Kings, another sign his time here was coming to an end.
“Tonight is not a night to reminisce,” Richards said on that day. “There will be a time this summer when you think back to what an amazing ride it was. It has to be amazing to get his far. Things have to come together. No one will ever know — except for us — how much fun it was, how we came together.”
Richards was brought in back in July 2011 to be a leader on a team that desperately needed some championship pedigree. Even if his Rangers teams fell short, the remnants left in the locker room from his three-year stay surely will be felt going forward.
“Brad has been a very good player for us and an even better person,” Sather said. “We wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”