LA Kings place C Mike Richards on waivers

The Los Angeles Kings have placed forward Mike Richards on waivers.

The morning after the NHL All-Star Game, some somewhat surprising news has come out of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Kings have placed forward and two-time Stanley Cup winner Mike Richards on waivers.

It’s not that surprising in a hockey sense, as Richard’s role and minutes with the Kings have greatly been diminished since he first arrived with the team in June, 2011 after being traded by the Philadelphia Flyers for forwards Wayne Simmonds, Brayden Schenn, the rights to Rob Bordson and a second-round pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.

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Richards was the 24th overall pick by Philadelphia in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft. During his time with the Flyers, he was a two-time 30-goal scorer and scored at least 62 points in each season from 2007-2011. He scored a career-high 80 points during the 2008-2009 season.

After landing with the Kings in 2011, he was put in a more supporting role with the team. It was much different than his role with the Flyers, as he was their first-line center and captain. With the Kings, they had him starting out between second and third-line center, so it’s not surprising he wasn’t able to match his production from his time in Philly. However, his production has started to drastically tail off the past season-and-a-half. Richards only scored 11 goals and 41 points in 82 games last season, and has just 5 goals and 15 points in 47 points so far this season.

The past couple seasons, Richards has played mostly on the Kings’ fourth line. For a bottom-six forward, that type of production isn’t bad. What makes it bad is that Richards carries a $5.75 million cap hit with him.

That’s a hefty price tag for a fourth line player.

Richards signed a monstrous 12-year, $69 million contract extension with the Flyers back in 2007. This was back before the new contract stipulations were put in place with the new CBA in 2013, where 12-year contracts were still allowed in the NHL. The Flyers felt at the time that Richards was going to be the staple of the franchise, but decided to go in a different direction in 2011 with the emergence of Claude Giroux.

There have been talks that the Kings have been trying to trade Richards, but it doesn’t seem like they were able to find a team to take on Richard’s hefty contract. The Kings last resort was to waive the two-time Stanley Cup winner.

It’s hard to say what will happen next for Mike Richards. It will be hard for some teams to pass up on a player like Richards, but at a price tag of $5.75 million, most teams will probably take a pass for now.

H/T to NBC Sports Pro Hockey Talk for the information.

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