It's pretty much official, Brad Richards is coming to Broadway to play for the Rangers next season.
The 31-year-old has reportedly signed a nine-year contract for $6.5 million this morning, after sleeping on his decision last night, while the Rangers were hard at work signing Mike Rupp from the Penguins, and re-signing Ruslan Fedotenko. Yesterday, Richards was flooded with offers and contracts from teams like Tampa Bay, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Calgary. The Rangers said they would be willing to match any contract that came to Richards, but ultimately Richards took a discount and left money on the table with the other teams to play in New York.
What does this mean for the Rangers cap situation? Initially, the idea of matching any contract that came forward from another team was petrifying, as it was reported there were some $9 million dollar contracts being mentioned. However, since Richards took the lower amount of money than that, it leaves New York with a bit of wiggle-room that the desperately need in order to sign Ryan Callahan, Brandon Dubinsky, Michael Sauer, Artem Anisimov and Brian Boyle who all become restricted free-agents next summer.
However, most fans in New York won't be totally satisfied until he produces for the Rangers. Which is not out of the realm of possibility that he certainly will. Richards has gotten better with age, and has scored more points than games hes played over the past two seasons. There's not a doubt in my mind that he can produce, especially being paired up with Marian Gaborik. Richards won't be a goal scoring wizard on the ice, but he is a fantastic set-up man which is just what Gaborik needs. Along with having a history of winning the Stanley Cup with coach John Tortorella in Tampa Bay, Richards can get an idea of what the Rangers' system will be like and what the coach will expect from him.
In all, I am fairly excited, but tentative at the same time. I pray for this to finally be the contract that is worth the nine year while. I pray for Richards and Gaborik to become so cohesive that they know where each other is on the ice at all times, like some kind of hockey sonar. I pray this leads the Rangers to bigger and better things without sacrificing the home grown talent. And I pray Richards has one of the best runs of his career in New York.
Welcome to the Rangers, Brad.
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