Mike Richards reportedly gets 12 year/$70 million deal

[buh_buh]

Just heard this on hockeycentral at noon.
Mike Richards gets a 12 year deal worth 70 million dollars. Now DiPietro's contract isnt looking as stupid. Is the NHL starting to get to these kinds of contracts all the time to keep their good players?

TSN doesn't have a number yet, but here's the link:
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=225091&hubname=

[boi-alien]

i think it's more of a case that teams are afraid of KLowe type poaching tactics.

[max_boost]

I think it's a good deal for both sides.

[buh_buh]

well, signing impending RFAs before they become RFAs are more of a KLowe anti-poaching tactic, but this doesn't explain the 12 year deal. I think long term deals like this are pretty risky for both sides. If Mike Richards ends up winning a few hart trophies down the road, they're getting him for a steal at 5.8 per. Who knows what the average elite player salary will be by then. But what if he destroys his knee next year, and ends up being the next Lindros? Then Philly has to eat the $70 million even if he ends up being a fringe NHLer. What happened to the 4 year deals that were deemed as long term?

[bobby_lu]

They have some good young talent over there in Philly, with this and Briere's deal, I wonder how many of Carter, Gagne, Umberger etc they will be able to keep long term.

Even Lupul's looking better this year, too bad for Edmonton.

I hope Dave Nonis is in the process of negotiating a double digit year deal for Luongo.

[DonJuan]

LOL! for some reason I thought it was the Mike Richards from the Fan 960 that got this contract; I mean he's funny, but not that funny!

[Quizzes]

Wouldn't Philly be over the cap next year??
Flyers' Salaries for 08-09:
Briere = $8M
Timonen = $8M
Richards = $5.8M
Gagne = $5.25M
Hartnell = $4.7M
Hatcher = $3.5M
Rathje = $3.5M
Biron = $3.5M
Lupul = $2.9M
Knuble = $2.8M

Total = $47.95M for 10 players on a 20 player roster.

Assuming the cap goes up to even $60M next year (that's being generous)... they have $12M to spend on 10 other pluggers on the team.
Not to mention Jeff Carter and Umberger are due for a pretty big raise if he doesn't wanna risk losing them to KLowe...

Gagne, Hartnell, Knuble will probably be trade bait.
Nobody wants Hatcher and/or Rathje anyways.

[Antonito]

Originally posted by buh_buh
well, signing impending RFAs before they become RFAs are more of a KLowe anti-poaching tactic, but this doesn't explain the 12 year deal. I think long term deals like this are pretty risky for both sides. If Mike Richards ends up winning a few hart trophies down the road, they're getting him for a steal at 5.8 per. Who knows what the average elite player salary will be by then. But what if he destroys his knee next year, and ends up being the next Lindros? Then Philly has to eat the $70 million even if he ends up being a fringe NHLer. What happened to the 4 year deals that were deemed as long term?

And what happens if he gets as good as they hope he does but then he turns into a primadonna and just sits out until they renegotiate because he thinks $5.8 is too low, citing market value?

[TeamBestBud]

Timonen 8M...i still say that he has one hell of an agent.

[buh_buh]

Originally posted by Antonito


And what happens if he gets as good as they hope he does but then he turns into a primadonna and just sits out until they renegotiate because he thinks $5.8 is too low, citing market value?

I'm sure that's EXACTLY what will happen if he turns into a perennial Hart trophy winner or even wins one hart trophy. These contracts are meaningless, and the risk bears almost solely on the teams doling out these contracts.

Originally posted by TeamBestBud
Timonen 8M...i still say that he has one hell of an agent.

he's been a disappointment so far. IMO they would've been better off giving some of that to Pitkanen and letting Timonen go somewhere else. But hindsight is 20/20.

[max_boost]

I don't think Richards is going to win any major trophies in this era with the likes of Crosby, Kovalchuk, Ovechkin and whoever else you want to name. But I'm sure he'll put up some really good numbers.

With contracts like this I'm sure there are all sorts of clauses that need to be met or else either side should be able to opt out. Remember Yashin got released from his 10yr/$90million deal?

I do agree that it is fucking weird to sign a 12 year deal. I think it has more to do with the owner than the GM i.e. Charles Wang, owner of NYI. Why would a GM do this?

[oilerfan4lyfe]

I think this is a pretty good deal...he's going to be a bargain in 2-3 years. One of the more complete and underrated players in the NHL for sure.