Richards Resigns for $39,000,000

[PDO]

http://tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=166601&hubname=

The Tampa Bay Lightning announced Monday that centre Brad Richards has come to terms on a new five-year, $39 million US contract.

Richards' new deal will pay him $7.8 million US a season.

Richards was set to become a restricted free agent July 1, meaning any team could put an offer sheet on the table for him to sign.

Tampa Bay would have the right to match, and would have received a package of first-round draft picks if they backed away.
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''Brad Richards is a special hockey player and an even better person,'' Lightning vice-president and general manager Jay Feaster said in a statement. ''He has represented this franchise with class, dignity and pride since his first day wearing a Lightning sweater.''

Richards, who won the Conn Smythe Trophy for the 2004 Stanley Cup Champions, made $3.4 million US in the final year of his contract.

Richards finished last season with a team-high 91 points and a franchise-record 68 assists.

The multi-year contract for Richards locks up the Lightning's three most productive forwards over the last few seasons. Former Hart and Art Ross Trophy winner Martin St. Louis settled on a six-year, $31.5 million US deal last summer, while centre Vincent Lecavalier signed a four-year contract last August worth $27.5 million US.

WTF?

Just... WTF? God I HATE TAMPA BAY. This is the third ridiculous contract in three years. Are they trying to **** everyone over with ridiculous comparisons? For ****s sake!

[J.R.]

Umm, yeah that's what I call ridiculous. Enjoy that $7.8M/a year, TBL. What a waste.

[Mel]

That's a whole lot of money and time committed to 3 guys.

I don't consider Richards worth 7.8. Way high. Good for him... bad for his franchise.

[TimmyTabasco]

Jay Feaster is officially a mad man. he is clutching at straws

But hey..this may make Sydor available...

Get on the phone Nonis :thumb:

[THE HACK]

Its good that Tampa has locked up Richards for 5 more years but at 7.8 mil a yr is just insane or should I say stupid! How the hell does Richards now become the 2nd highest paid player in the league and now goes from making 3.4 mil a yr to 7.8 and this is without being an UFA!!! This freaking sucks for the rest of the NHL,thanks Jay Feaster!:rolleyes:

Cheers

[Mel]

I don't think this sucks at all (for the league)... in the "old days", a move like this would have raised the entire NHL salary scale. Squeezing the smaller market teams again and again...

But now it cannot have that effect. UFA's can say "I'm worth as much as Richards" till they are blue in the face. But not everybody is gonna earn the max or even close to it. It just can't happen mathematically.


This DOES suck for Tampa, what the hell are they thinking? :confused:

I guess they feel they can build another champion around these 3 with whatever money is left. They have approximately $19 million / year wrapped up in the big 3. I'm not math wiz, but that seems like an awfully big percentage of their alloted budget.

I also agree with HACK, they weren't going to lose him if they just matched... so if they were prepared to open the vault for Richards... maybe it would have half way prudent to see what kind of offers he was fetching before throwing 8 million per in his wallet.

but what do I know? :shrug:

[Man.Utd]

Jay Feaster is officially a mad man. he is clutching at straws.

Feaster is an idiot. WTF! I'm no angry at him right now! 8M!?!?!? I never even thought that was possible as of yet. Wouldn't he have to wait for the cap to go up? The max is 20% of the cap but it has yet to rise so I thought he'd have to wait a while yet to sign him for this much.....

Anyway, this makes Ottawa's summer job that much tougher (along with every other NHL club) trying to re-sign its stars. In know in Ottawa's case, the organization simply won't recognize this contract in negotiations. That's what happened last time Richards got a big pay-off and Havlat wanted equal treatment (Feaster) and Hossa wanted what Lecavailler got (also Feaster!). We'll likely lose a bit on ice with these tactics but that's the way it should be done IMO. Don't like it? Kiss me between the back pockets and good day to you. It's no wonder why New Jersey has been so respected and successful under LouLam.

What goes around comes around. Tampa Bay was apparently offering alot for Roloson at the deadline to fix its goaltending - more than Edmonton reportedly - but Minny was still holding out for more from TB knowing they had a good package already from Edmonton. Other franchises know what this means for them and pay it forward accordingly to GM's like Feaster. Expect the Lightning to get charged more than other teams would for a while yet. The same thing happens with offer sheets. If it was all so simple you'd see alot more being thrown out but GM's have long memories. My man Muckler is in his 70's; imagine what cards he can play!

* Tampa has way too much $$$ to Richards, St. Louis, and Lecavailler. And it won't be easy to trade any of them at that price. The Lightning fans should be pissed. Feaster just made it awful challanging for his club to ice a competitive team for years to come.

[The Insider]

I think this is a good signing by the Lightning, Richards is a superstar player who has won 2 of hockey's most recognized awards (The Stanley Cup & Conn Smythe) With the salary cap going up it does seem like Tampa struck before anyone else did with the signing, but in a city where hockey is pretty much stick by you when your winning so long when your losing, keeping stars is a priority to give people someone to cheer for and recognize. Now all this talk of driving the price up is tired, if anyone is going to claim that they deserve the same amount as the Conn Smythe winner last time hockey was played, they're kidding themselves. Sure this year was a backwards step for the Lightning, but something tells me next season one of the 3, Lecavalier, Richards & St. Louis, will not be back in Lightning uniform next season which will make more sense for this deal, the way that St. Louis qualified Pronger and then dealt him to the Oilers.

[Newfie John]

What the..

Feaster is a friggin moron. If there was any doubt that Elias would get the max before, it's definately gone now.

[Madferret]

lol
Kiss the SE good-bye for at least 4 years Feaster..

[Amoroq]

A team signing a player to an obscene amount of money and its not the Toronto Maple Leafs??? FIRE JFJ ;)

Joking of course. Something tells me there will be more to this. I have a feeling, and this isn't based on anything more then that, but I think Luongo might end up being the secret ingredient in this recipie.

[charlio lemieux]

Short term I don't like what this does to TBL's cap. But if the cap continues to increase, in 2 or 3 years it may not be so bad.

[KB in Kelowna]

Perhaps TBay won't be the destination of goalies with big contracts after all.:shrug:

[Max Power]

Perhaps TBay won't be the destination of goalies with big contracts after all.:shrug:

Yup
So tampa won't dish out for their star netminder but will pay ridiculous amount for one of their star players. I don't get it

[Mel]

I have to agree with Amo that perhaps they have something else lined up

[Darsehole Tucker]

I have to agree with Amo that perhaps they have something else lined up

Even in a sign-and-trade situation Feaster has set the bar for a player of Richards quality to make $7.8mil. That's absolutely unacceptable.

[Mel]

Even in a sign-and-trade situation Feaster has set the bar for a player of Richards quality to make $7.8mil. That's absolutely unacceptable.

I completely agree that the deal is absurd.

But do not believe any bar has been set. Teams must now do business under forced spending constraints. Therefore if a free agent like Zdeno Chara or Patrick Elias feels they are worth Richards level of compensation... there will be very few teams, if any, willing to shell out that much on one guy, regardless of what Feaster does.

The player comparison tactics used by agents to drive up salaries over the years are now effectively useless.

Let's say Elias new agent declares him to be worth at least as much if not more than Richards.... how many teams can you name that will be lining up to spend 20% (or more) of their entire payroll on Elias? I can't think of any, including New Jersey.

Even if Elias did find a suitor with the cap room and the willingness to pay him like Richards... that's still a rarity, it will not become the norm.

[MadDevil]

I completely agree that the deal is absurd.

But do not believe any bar has been set. Teams must now do business under forced spending constraints. Therefore if a free agent like Zdeno Chara or Patrick Elias feels they are worth Richards level of compensation... there will be very few teams, if any, willing to shell out that much on one guy, regardless of what Feaster does.

The player comparison tactics used by agents to drive up salaries over the years are now effectively useless.

Let's say Elias new agent declares him to be worth at least as much if not more than Richards.... how many teams can you name that will be lining up to spend 20% (or more) of their entire payroll on Elias? I can't think of any, including New Jersey.

Even if Elias did find a suitor with the cap room and the willingness to pay him like Richards... that's still a rarity, it will not become the norm.

This is the thing that worries me the most about this contract signing (and makes me want to shoot Feaster in the head). Elias could very easily argue that he's worth as much or more than Richards, which leaves the Devils in quite the bind if they want to resign him, especially considering they have to resign Gomez and Gionta as well.:curse:

Take last year for example. Scott Niedermayer's $6.8 million contract raised the bar on defensemen, and Brian Rafalski got a $4.2 million contract because of it, when he should really be making $3.5 million at the most IMO.

This is going to come back to bite Tampa in the ass eventually, since they're now spending roughly half the cap on 3 players. It's just ludicrous really.

If I put out a hit on Vladimir Malakhov, Alexander Mogilny, and Dan McGillis, would the Devils still be responsible for their salaries?:wicked:

[Max Power]

May 25, 2006
Bolts unable to re-sign Kubina?
TheFourthPeriod.com
The Tampa Bay Lightning have just over $33 million dedicated to 12 players for next season's roster, which leaves one to wonder if they will be able to keep Pavel Kubina.
Kubina and goalie John Grahame are unrestricted free agents this summer, while Ruslan Fedotenko is set to hit the restricted market.

While it is uncertain how high the salary cap will increase next season – it has been rumored to jump as high as $46 million – it's been widely speculated that the Lightning will not be able to re-sign Kubina.

Kubina notched five goals and 33 assists for 38 points in 76 games with the Bolts this past season.
The 29-year-old is expected to draw a lot of interest this summer, which could drive his price tag up.

...

[THE HACK]

Kubina is as good as gone but I don't think the Lightning would have been able to resign him anyways.

I consider LeCavlier,St.Louis and Richards to be pretty much on even par but their salary's are all significantly different with St.Louis(5.3),LeCavlier(6.7) and Richards(8.7) which I find to be quite odd and could create some hard feelings within!Feaster has messed his team up imo!

Cheers