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The Story of Mike Richards the National Hockey League player wasn’t always bad.
A first-round pick by the Philadelphia Flyers, Richards played every single shift as nasty as he could within his 5-foot-11 frame. In spite of his 24th overall selection in 2003, you always felt as if Richards played with a chip on his shoulder, and that his presence was an ultimate kick-starter for a rebuilding Flyers group. Richards wore the ‘C’ for the Flyers throughout their rise to Cup contending status, and while the Kenora, Ont. native never brought the Bullies on Broad closer to a Stanley Cup than he did with a six-game series loss to the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010, people valued Richards’ game.
And Richards’ inclusion among the league’s elite -- in terms of grit, leadership, and the ability to rise to that next level when the team needed it most (on ice, anyway) -- was never, ever in question.
But when the Flyers decided to move on from Richards, sending him to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds in a trade that’s become awfully lopsided in favor of the Flyers as time goes on, Richards’ game took a noticeable dip. In spite of two Stanley Cups with the Kings, it never felt as if Richards was anything close to the player he was during his tenure in Philly.
Richards’ time in LA bottomed out in 2014-15, too, with the Kings sending their former alternate captain down to the AHL (he scored three goals and 14 points in 16 games for the Manchester Monarchs), and his NHL line finishing with a career-worst five goals and 16 points in 53 games.
It somehow got worse for the 30-year-old, too, with an offseason drug possession arrest -- believed to be painkillers -- at the Canadian border. This accelerated towards a settlement regarding the Kings’ termination of his contract, and officially put Richards out there as an unrestricted free agent.
A free agent with about a dozen red flags, but a free agent nevertheless.
And now, with Richards returning to the ice to skate with his OHL alum Kitchener Rangers, the word around the league is that four-time 20-goal scorer is conditioning himself for a potential comeback.
From SI.com:
Among those who might be interested: the Predators, Maple Leafs and Bruins, who may be looking for a depth center after losing Chris Kelly for the season.
It’s an interesting proposal, to say the least. Yes, the Bruins lost a ton of experience with Chris Kelly’s season-ending broken femur. And like Kelly, Richards is a player that’s played both the wing and center throughout his NHL career. The similarities don’t end there, either, as both are accustomed to logging the hard minutes -- penalty kills, defensive-zone starts, mucker roles on the bottom-six -- required of them. But is Kelly’s loss enough to make the Bruins take a major gamble -- not in cash, but in their belief that this is a player that’s healthy in more ways than one -- on Richards?
Richards is an undeniable reclamation project and I honestly cannot see a fit for that in Boston.
The Bruins’ penalty kill has been a nightmare all year long (though they’ve killed off nine of their last 10 penalties against), and it’d be almost impossible to envision a scenario in which the Bruins legitimately believe that Richards is the secondary penalty-killing forward that saves ‘em from the PK basement. Even if they're running unfamiliar shorthanded talents -- such as David Krejci and fourth-line energy banger Zac Rinaldo -- out there on a semi-regular basis. I think that it is fair to have questions about somebody like Joonas Kemppainen and his effectiveness over the course of an 82-game grind (this is Kemppainen’s first year in the NHL), but nothing within his game through the first month plus of the season has honestly suggested that he’s incapable of centering their fourth line. And even the B’s fourth-line wingers -- from Tyler Randell to Rinaldo and even Max Talbot -- have given you what you would have to realistically expect from Richards at this point in his career, if not more.
When you looked at Richards’ return to the NHL from the AHL last season, you couldn’t help but feel as if this was a player whose tank was simply emptied out. It looked as if everything -- the hard minutes, the postseason wars, the now-entirely-more-public off-ice issues -- took a massive toll on his legs.
In essence, I just don't know what Richards would have left in him, if anything, to give to the Bruins as a Kelly replacement or even as a 12th forward. Even at or near league minimum -- which is realistically all Richards would get given his situation -- it just doesn't seem worth it.
So while a rise back to the NHL from below the dirt would be yet another comeback win for Richards to add to his impressive mantle, it’s hard to envision that coming with Richards donning the Spoked-B.
Ty Anderson has been covering the National Hockey League for HockeyBuzz.com since 2010, has been a member of the Pro Hockey Writers Association's Boston Chapter since 2013, and can be contacted on Twitter, or emailed at Ty.AndersonHB[at]gmail.com.