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Toronto Maple Leafs Shouldn’t Pursue Mike Richards

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Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

Although the Toronto Maple Leafs could desperately use another center, one player the team should avoid is Mike Richards.

The Los Angeles Kings are rumored to be shopping Richards and his yearly $5.75 million cap hit that runs until the end of the 2019-20 season. The Kings are extremely limited when it comes to cap space, and will soon need to provide new contracts for Conn Smythe trophy winner Justin Williams and superstar forward Anze Kopitar. Given there are currently seven forwards averaging more ice time than Richards this season, Los Angeles will no doubt like to move his loaded contract if they could find someone desperate enough to take him.

With the Kings, Richards hasn’t come close to putting up the same numbers he did when he was with the Philadelphia Flyers. He’s played alright in the postseason, but wasn’t necessarily a key factor in Los Angeles capturing their second cup in three seasons last year, and as a result he’s become expendable.

The problem for the Kings will be trying to find a taker for Richards, given his big contract and failure to live up to that contract. The Maple Leafs are about as desperate as a team can get to acquire another center, and were even rumored to be upset that Philadelphia moved Richards years ago without first allowing Toronto to attempt to make an offer to acquire his services.

Richards is a former 80-point scorer, and given a change of scenery and a greater role on a new team, it could see him return to a form similar to what he displayed in Philadelphia. At his best, the former captain of the Flyers would be a significant upgrade over Tyler Bozak and Nazem Kadri, but the best of Richards hasn’t been seen in years. Considering the price to acquire Richards would be next to nothing due to his contract, it could be tempting for the Maple Leafs to roll the dice on the former Olympian. Perhaps the Kings would accept the often-injured Joffrey Lupul in return simply because he has less term remaining on his deal.

The Maple Leafs are practically just as tight against the salary cap as the Kings are and would have to move out significant salary to take a chance on the center. The risk vs. reward in acquiring Richards is that he continues to play like a bottom-six forward making top-six forward money, or he regains the form he once showed and turns the contract into a fair value deal.

Toronto can’t afford uncertainties when it comes to acquiring contracts with this much term remaining on the deal, and although they might have liked Richards at one stage of his career, Maple Leaf fans should be hoping that ship has sailed.

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