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UPDATE: Richards Clears Waivers, Kings & Yandle?, Big Injuries,

January 26, 2015, 12:26 PM ET [552 Comments]
Eklund
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Mike Richards has cleared waivers and it is expected that he will be sent to the AHL's Manchester Monarchs.

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UPDATE: The injury news was hot and heavy on Monday.

Bad news for the Islanders, as winger Kyle Okposo will be out 6-8 weeks with an upper body injury, which increases the probability that they will be buyers prior to March 2nd.

The Maple Leafs lost defenseman Dion Phaneuf "week to week" to an upper body injury and the Avs will be without All-Star Erik Johnson between three to eight weeks with a knee injury, potentially ending what little playoff chances either club had.

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I believe someone will and SHOULD claim Mike Richards. Richards is a center who has already been to three Stanley Cup Finals in his short career. He has matured a ton since his time in Philadelphia, and is a player who will go through a wall for his teammates. His contract goes for a while at 5.75, but he is a top 2 center and most teams are already paying that for their top 2 centers...if he is your third center he is pricey, but in a few years won't be.

Don't be fooled by his numbers in LA. In LA he wasn't asked to produce much and was down the depth chart on a very deep team. He will play any role he is given, and in LA that wasn't to score. However, I firmly believe the Kings don't win the two Cups without Richards. And the Flyers don't make it to the Final without Richards either.

You can point to very specific moments in each year's playoff run where Richards came up huge.

Last year it was game 1 against Anaheim. With the team down and time running out, it was Mike Richards who made an unbelievable keep, then pass to send the game to OT...where Gaborik would win it. Winning game 1 in that series was huge for LA.

On Yandle....

The Kings love this guy and why not? The price is high however.... We will have to wait and see. One thing that is for certain...the Kings didn't want to put Richards on waivers..there is a reason they have to. Something is up.



We talked about this and plenty of other rumors today on the HockeyBuzzCast from Blizzardy Philadelphia



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