If the Los Angeles Kings were almost any other team, general manager Dean Lombardi would be drawing significant heat at the moment.
After all, the Kings were expected to contend for a championship this season. Currently, they aren’t even in a playoff spot. They have a host of expensive free agents to deal with this summer, and with minimal growth expected in the salary cap and a bunch of players signed to long-term, big-money deals, they also have little room to maneuver.
On Tuesday, Mike Richards, the owner of one of those long-term, big-money deals, cleared waivers.
Lombardi is definitely safe. He is, after all, the chief architect of the team that has won two of the last three Stanley Cups. But that doesn’t change the fact that he has some tricky maneuvering in front of him, maneuvering which will require the sort of ruthless decisions he’s been reluctant to make over the last several seasons.
Virtually every key member of the team signed beyond this season is inked to a long-term deal, either one that predates the Kings’ acquisition of the player (as in Richards' case) o ...
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Article written by Jonathan Willis
Los Angeles Kings’ Cap Issues Aren’t Going Away After Waiving Mike Richards
January 27th, 2015 by Jonathan Willis Leave a reply »
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