The big hockey news of the day comes out of Hollywood, as the defending Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings have placed center Mike Richards on waivers. For the last couple of months, the Kings have been actively shopping Richards to teams in an attempt to get his tremendous salary off their books. The New York Rangers, a team that is looking for help down the middle, should not even think about pursuing Richards.

Richards is only 29 years old, but his production has completely fallen off over the last two years. Last year, Richards barely broke double-digits for goals, ending the year with 10 and a point total of 41. This year has gotten even worse, as through 47 games, Richards only has five goals and 10 assists for a pathetic 15-point total. He has played most of the season on the fourth line, something you rarely see from a player making $5.75 million per year until 2020. Richards’ fancy stats aren’t all that bad, as his Corsi-for-percentage is at 52.3 percent, but that number is skewed considering he is playing against other teams’ fourth lines regularly.

At the end of this season, the Rangers are going to have cap problems. That is just a fact. They have a tremendous amount of salary tied up to Henrik Lundqvist, Rick Nash, Ryan McDonagh, Dan Girardi and Marc Staal. They also have to re-sign forwards Derek Stepan, Martin St. Louis, Mats Zuccarello and Carl Hagelin, just to name a few. They are likely to lose either one of St. Louis and Zuccarello and might also lose some depth guys like Lee Stempniak and Jesper Fast.

The Rangers’ center position is not as bad as people think. Stepan and Derick Brassard have both been producing at ridiculous rates this year, and Kevin Hayes and Dominic Moore are solid enough to keep the bottom-six afloat. Even if the Rangers want to make a move for a center, there are cheaper options out there on the trade market.

While people have been making a huge deal about the Rangers’ poor faceoff percentage, they must realize that faceoffs don’t always lead to possession. There are so many other factors that can lead to a team’s possession numbers, such as how quickly you can forecheck the opposition after you lose the draw.

Adding Richards would be a disastrous move for the Rangers. Glen Sather has to realize that while his team needs help at center, they are not desperate enough to add a player like Richards. The Rangers already bought out one Richards last offseason in Brad Richards, and they would be foolish to even think about bringing in another one.