Mike Richards; To Be Or Not To Be A Los Angeles King

(Via @RaeCroteau)

2015

The phone rang on the Sunday afternoon and he went to answer it.  It was Dean.  In a very short but to the point conversation, Mike Richards had just learned that he was being put on waivers.  His days as a Los Angeles King could possibly have come to a sad end.

Things had started out so well in the beginning of the season.  Richards, as promised had showed up to the camp in the best shape of his life.  The Kings were the defending Stanley Cup champions again and had blasted out of the gates with a terrific first month of the campaign.  Then, with just a snap of the hockey God fingers, everything seemed to fall apart.

On the morning of October 20^th, Richards, like the rest of his team and organization, woke up to the news that teammate Slava Voynov was suspended indefinitely by the league (and then the team) after being accused and arrested for domestic assault on his wife.  Voynov, arguably the number 2 defensman on the Kings roster behind Drew Doughty, was now possibly lost for the season, maybe even forever.  Voynov’s  $4.6 million dollar contract stayed on the cap (and with reliable defenseman Willie Mitchell not being re-signed during the off-season) the Kings, their salary cap budget and their defense were in some serious trouble.

The Los Angeles Kings had been known as a tough and unrelenting defensive team but with 2 major defensive players in Mitchell and Voynov now gone, the defense of the team unsurprisingly started to struggle.  It didn’t help matters when injuries also decimated the once proud defense when other defenseman Jake Muzzin, Alec Martinez and Robyn Regehr were in and out of the line up throughout the season due to various injuries.

To make matters worse and even though Richards had kept his word on improving his overall fitness, he struggled to find his game and was put back on the “fourth line” as its center.  The difference with the “demotion” this time around was that Richards, even though struggling when compared to his normal production, was still an effective bottom six player during the previous playoffs (just months before) which added some serious depth to the team’s line up that made their opponents struggle to fully compete against the Kings. This time around as a bottom six center, Richards had become invisible and a non threatening presence on the ice.  He seemed slower, the mistakes seemed to stand out more and became more frequent and he seemed short of confidence.  His numbers started dropping once again but this time at an even more alarming rate than they had been the previous season.  Young forwards Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson had gotten sick/injured and this created an opportunity for Richards to step up and shine but for whatever reason, he did not.  Richards was playing like a shadow of his former self.

Luckily the league allowed the Kings to remove Voynov’s cap hit from their books and this gave them some breathing space but this also magnified Richards large contract like a sore thumb.  With Richards overall decline of production and the team consistently losing points and falling out of a playoff spot, Lombardi had to make a move to shake up the team.  So he called up Mike Richards and told him he was being placed on waivers.

In an agonizing 24 hours the hockey world waited to see if Richards would be picked up by another team or would pass waivers and then be assigned to the Kings minor league affiliate Manchester Monarchs. Lombardi believed in Richards and felt he had let him down.  Placing Richards on waivers felt necessary and was a desperate move to shake up and wake up a dangerously slumping Los Angeles Kings team while possibly relieving the team of some more much-needed cap space.  The team still badly needed another defenseman as Brayden McNabb and Jamie McBain couldn’t fully replace on the ice what Voynov brought to the team.  This dominoed to Sutter having to play top defenseman Drew Doughty an average of 30 minutes a game and risk the chance of burning him out by the time the playoffs arrived.  Also looming over the team like a dark cloud was there were a lot of players that needed to be re-signed or giving raises in the off-season.  Players the Kings could not afford to lose as well.  So Lombardi played the only hand he could and opened up talks and tried to trade Richards to another team but no agreement could be made.  Richards with his poor play and large contract scared off most potential suitors and the 2 teams that were interested weren’t willing to trade back any players that the Kings could actually use effectively right away.  So with a heavy heart, Lombardi took a risk and placed Richards on waivers.

The shock of the move rocked the hockey world as analysts and fans debated whether Lombardi had done the right thing or not, or should he have bought out Richards contract in the summer or not, or should he have traded Richards (which Lombardi did try to do but it wasn’t easy due to Richards intimidating contract) instead of embarrassing him by placing him on waivers.  Rumors swirled that teams like the Calgary Flames, Nashville Predators and Ottawa Senators were going to take this perfect opportunity to pluck Richards out of his purgatory and add him to their rosters but after the 24 hour window closed, Richards went unclaimed and was assigned to the minors.  It seemed nobody wanted to take a chance with Mike Richards anymore.

The Kings won their first game without him by beating their old rivals the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3.  Jeff Carter himself got 2 goals and 3 points and the team played like they heard Lombardi’s message loud and clear.  If this could happen to an important player like Mike Richards then no one on the team was safe and the team had better step up and step up fast so they did.  After the game, Jeff Carter was interviewed and was asked how he and the team felt about Richards being waived and now playing in the minors?  Carter thought about the answer for a brief moment and answered as straight forward and clichéd as he could by saying the whole team was struggling and they all needed to step up and do their part but as Carter was talking his voice started to crack and he seemed to be choked up.  His words were not matching with his facial expression as his emotions were a lot louder than his words.  He and the team were heartbroken that Richards was now gone, possibly for good.  They were shocked by it as Richards was family but they knew they had to go on and keep playing.  They couldn’t quit, Richards had taught them that.

After Richards played his first game with the Monarchs he admitted to the press that he didn’t play a very good game but was being optimistic,

“I wasn’t great,” said Richards to Mayorsmanor.com. “I had some good shifts, did some good things, did some bad things, had some bad shifts. [You can] only go up from here.”

Afterwards Richards got dressed and headed for his current but temporary home.  Word was that Toronto Maple Leafs GM David Nonis was going to be at the next game, specifically to scout Richards out and check on his progress.  Richards knew that Lombardi as well was still keeping a close eye on how he was doing.  He had no idea where this road was going to take him and what the next chapter of his hockey career was going to be.  He wasn’t at all comfortable with this uncertain future nor was he happy with himself and the way he was poorly playing. However, come what may, whether he was going to become a Toronto Maple Leaf, a Nashville Predator or play for some other team or even if he was called back up to play for the Los Angeles Kings again, he did know two things; the hockey world hadn’t seen the last of him and he most definitely wasn’t going to quit.  There was still a job to do.

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