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| Original Image Credit Goes To Dave Lozo of NHL.com |
Gord Miller at TSN Tweeted the contract numbers for Brad Richards' new deal with the Rangers. Richards will make $12 million in 2011-2012, $12 million in 2012-2013, $9 million in 2013-2014, $8.5 million in 2014-2015, $8.5 million in 2015-2016, $7 million in 2016-2017, $1 million in 2017-2018, $1 million in 2018-2019 and $1 million in 2019-2020. Richards also received a $10 million signing bonus plus $2 million of his actual salary in the first year of his contract, and an $8 million signing bonus plus a $4 million base salary in the second year. Larry Brooks also Tweeted last night that Richards' contract includes a no-movement clause for the entire duration of his contract.
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People will obviously worry about giving a no-movement clause to a player who is signed until he's 40 years old, but this is the way contracts work nowadays. The no-movement clause in the NHL is similar to that opt out clause that is given out seemingly regularly in other professional sports; it's basically just a formality to include it in the deal in order to land a big free agent. I fully expected Richards to get a no-movement clause, so this news doesn't really shock me or even worry me all that much. Richards is the type of player who I think can remain productive over the duration of his contract assuming that he stays healthy. But if the Rangers were really in dire need to get rid of Brad Richards - as we saw with Chris Drury, who also had a no-movement clause - the Rangers could always just buy him out. He's making $1 million per year each of the final three years of his deal, so it's not like that has a large impact on the Rangers' salary cap.
Meanwhile, Brooks also mentioned in his story in the New York Post this morning that Brad Richards turned down more money from the Calgary Flames and Toronto Maple Leafs, and that the Rangers actually increased their original offer to get Richards to sign with them over the Kings.
"Richards did indeed leave some money on the table, believed nearly $10 million overall in choosing to come to New York rather than Toronto, and about $4 million in rejecting an aggressive offer from Calgary, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.
The Blueshirts originally offered eight years at $51 million before increasing the offer Friday night to get the nod over the Kings, who were in at nine years, $58.5 million."
It was reported yesterday that Richards left money on the table to come to the Rangers, but I definitely didn't expect it to be as much as $10 million. I know $10 million seems like nothing to these rich athletes, but for Richards to actually turn down money shows, to me at least, how much he respects John Tortorella and genuinely wanted to come here. Richards didn't go to the highest bidder to boost his ego, which I think speaks to his leadership qualities that Torts talked about in the Rangers' conference call with the media last night.
By the way, if you'd like to read the highlights of the conference call from last night with Torts, Richards and Glen Sather you can check it out at Andrew Gross' blog here.
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