Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Brad Richards to N.Y. Rangers trade rumor mill heats up

60361_senators_stars_hockey-bradrichards

When you look at the situation the Dallas Stars find themselves in with Brad Richards, it’s a pretty fruitful scenario for the creation of rumors - valid or random.

For one thing, the high-scoring (91 points last season, 30 in 25 games this year) Richards is a tantalizing tease for any deep-pocketed team in need of a catalyst at the center position. The free agent-to-be is in the last season of a deal that registers a $7.8 million cap hit, a huge number that will be far more digestible as each week passes. When you combine his skill, pending free agency and the Stars’ shaky ownership situation, any number of armchair general managers (and real-life ones) can be excused for cooking up scenarios that enrich their teams by way of prospect/draft pick + salary dump-type deals.

(Side note: The Stars’ disturbing attendance woes give credibility to the rumors as well, being that the team cannot seem to draw sellouts even with Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals in town. Why can’t a team on what is now a six game winning streak and with a 10-3-1 home record attract the locals?)

Perhaps it makes perfect sense, then, that the New York Rangers seem to be the first team tearing a ticket at the Richards’ deli counter today. Here is what ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun wrote about the Rangers’ interest in Richards, justified partially by the fact that general managers will gather at the Board of Governors meetings taking place early next week.

I was told Saturday the New York Rangers’ interest in Brad Richards (set to be an unrestricted free agent July 1) is serious enough that they’re willing to pony up assets before the Feb. 28 trade deadline to make sure he doesn’t go elsewhere should the Dallas Stars decide to put him on the market in order to get value before he leaves. This despite the fact the Rangers could get him July 1 without giving up any assets.

Obviously, the carrot here for Richards, who has a no-movement clause, is his relationship with Rangers coach John Tortorella. The two won a Cup together in 2004 when Torts was behind the bench for the Tampa Bay Lightning.


I would hope that the Stars would be able to acquire at least one genuine asset for Richards, at least from a public relations standpoint. After all, a fan base already fractured (maybe by the dual loss of former franchise faces Mike Modano and Marty Turco?) would have another reason to focus only on the Dallas Mavericks if the Stars dealt Richards while the team was still atop the Pacific Division.
mattgilroy

James O’Brien

Larry Brooks of the New York Post writes that $4.125 million in dead salary cap space in the form of healthy scratches Todd White and Matt Gilroy represents an issue if the Rangers hope to clear space for a Richards trade.

Dallas would prefer to sign Richards, in at $7.8 million, to a contract extension, but the absence of an owner would seem to make that impossible before July. As such, even as the Stars contend in the Western Conference, GM Joe Nieuwendyk probably will have to reach out to clubs that Richards, who holds a no-trade clause, would approve for a move.

The Rangers assuredly would be on that list. But the math and the possible lack of a match -- understand that Sather will not send valued young assets to Dallas for a player who all but certainly will be there for the taking on July 1 -- might mitigate against such a deal.

The league’s Board of Governors convenes tomorrow for the first day of meetings in Florida. It’s likely that Sather, whose hunt for a lefty defenseman has become less urgent with the steady development and improvement of the Steve Eminger-Michael Sauer third pair, will initiate a chat with Nieuwendyk.

The fact, though, is that the Rangers not only do not have the space now for Richards, it will be a task for Sather to create it before the Feb. 28 trade deadline.


Considering the sneaky salary cap movements of many GMs including Glen Sather’s stashing of Wade Redden’s $6.5 million annual cap hit in the minors, I am reluctant to believe that Sather couldn’t just dump more salaries to the AHL in favor of young bodies. The question is whether or not the Rangers can entice the Stars to blow up that great Richards-James Neal-Loui Eriksson line for the sake of their money situation.

Personally, I think the Stars should look at the Texas Rangers as a guiding light in a tough storm of a 2010-11 season. Their situation looked dire, too, but their team put together a historic season and pushed their franchise value to new heights.

Of course, DFW residents need to notice how well the Stars are playing for any of their wins to matter, though.