The Los Angeles Kings released a bombshell of a statement today, announcing that they’ve terminated the contract of forward Mike Richards.
Here’s the press release from the club.
“The Los Angeles Kings today have exercised the team’s right to terminate the contract of Mike Richards for a material breach of the requirements of his Standard Player’s Contract. We are not prepared to provide any more detail or to discuss the underlying grounds for the contract termination at this time.”
While plenty of people have been speculating what exactly Richards did to get his contract terminated, no official details have been leaked online. Richards, who carries a salary of $5.75 million per season until 2020, had a tough season last year spending time in the AHL.
In Katie Strang’s ESPN report, she says the contract termination is related to an off-ice incident.
Several sources told ESPN.com the Kings were made aware of the situation Friday, approximately an hour after the first round of the 2015 NHL draft had begun.
The NHLPA is in the process of reviewing the case, and have the right to file of grievance. The unprecedented situation may get messy.
“We are in the process of reviewing the facts and circumstances of this matter, and will discuss the situation with the player in order to determine the appropriate course of action,” NHLPA spokesman Jonathan Weatherdon said in a statement.
The whole thing seems kind of convenient for a team pressed so closely against the cap. There are already rumors that the club is on the hunt to re-sign the team’s big free agents they otherwise wouldn’t be able to pursue without Richards’ cap numbers coming off the book.
In the meantime, I'd expect LA to take a run at re-signing either Andrej Sekera or Justin Williams.
— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) June 29, 2015
Either way, the whole thing is still fairly unclear. We’ll update you with more details should they arise.
