Kings forgo buyout, terminate Richards' contract

[CarltonTheBear]

And, I mean, not to belabor the point too much but I really question how an independent arbitrator might look at a team using a clause like that to selectively get out of a bad contract. The Kings are no stranger to players not conducting themselves in a manner beneficial to the club this year and before Richards they've generally seemed pretty understanding and patient about it.

A bad contract that they were days away from likely buying out themselves. I'm not suggesting that LA made this all up, but man it sure is convenient that they found this out on Friday and not today.

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

A couple of new details from Elliotte Friedman: http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/sources-kings-found-out-about-richards-at-draft/

Namely that the Kings only found about out about whatever it is that happened during the 1st round of the draft on Friday. And this:

In a brief filed to the NHL and the NHLPA, the team referenced Section 2(e) of the SPC, which states a player agrees ?to conduct himself on and off the rink according to the highest standards of honesty, morality, fair play and sportsmanship, and to refrain from conduct detrimental to the best interest of the Club, the League or professional hockey generally.?

Phewf, a section clear as day which requires no degree of interpretation.

I will add, there can be things found at a border crossing which, while not resulting in your arrest would likely have certain implications.  I've known of people caught with "paraphernalia" where they weren't arrested but were banned from entering the US for a set period of time.  Say it was something like that, would still likely be something the Kings would be upset about which wouldn't rise to level of being charged.

 

[rdowdall]

A couple of new details from Elliotte Friedman: http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/sources-kings-found-out-about-richards-at-draft/

Namely that the Kings only found about out about whatever it is that happened during the 1st round of the draft on Friday. And this:

In a brief filed to the NHL and the NHLPA, the team referenced Section 2(e) of the SPC, which states a player agrees ?to conduct himself on and off the rink according to the highest standards of honesty, morality, fair play and sportsmanship, and to refrain from conduct detrimental to the best interest of the Club, the League or professional hockey generally.?

Phewf, a section clear as day which requires no degree of interpretation.

I will add, there can be things found at a border crossing which, while not resulting in your arrest would likely have certain implications.  I've known of people caught with "paraphernalia" where they weren't arrested but were banned from entering the US for a set period of time.  Say it was something like that, would still likely be something the Kings would be upset about which wouldn't rise to level of being charged.

Maybe Richards was trying to come to Canada to get away from gay marriages.

 

[Frank E]

A couple of new details from Elliotte Friedman: http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/sources-kings-found-out-about-richards-at-draft/

Namely that the Kings only found about out about whatever it is that happened during the 1st round of the draft on Friday. And this:

In a brief filed to the NHL and the NHLPA, the team referenced Section 2(e) of the SPC, which states a player agrees ?to conduct himself on and off the rink according to the highest standards of honesty, morality, fair play and sportsmanship, and to refrain from conduct detrimental to the best interest of the Club, the League or professional hockey generally.?

Phewf, a section clear as day which requires no degree of interpretation.

I will add, there can be things found at a border crossing which, while not resulting in your arrest would likely have certain implications.  I've known of people caught with "paraphernalia" where they weren't arrested but were banned from entering the US for a set period of time.  Say it was something like that, would still likely be something the Kings would be upset about which wouldn't rise to level of being charged.

Yep.  I'm not a lawyer, but that's super ambiguous.  "highest standards of honesty"...I don't even know how to measure the highest standard of honesty?

For the Kings' sake, I sure hope they have more than just this particular section to refer to.

 

[Bates]

I think I remember a CFL player a few years ago being detained for having steroids at the border.  There was no arrest but the drugs were seized.  Can't seem to find the details to confirm.  I think they were DR prescribed but not declared if I remember correct???

That was my gut feeling as well, though maybe not just herbal.

My question on that though is doesn't the NHL have a substance abuse program? And wouldn't they be required/encouraged to enroll the player in one before contract termination?

Not to put too fine a point on it but if Mike Richards was caught trying to smuggle drugs over a border I'm pretty sure he'd have been arrested. That's a pretty serious crime

 

[Kin]

There's also something a little fishy in the narrative Lombardi is pushing about how and when he found out. According to him, he was seriously involved in trade talks with Edmonton and Calgary that were derailed by his sudden discovery on Friday.

I don't know about the rest of you but the Richards contract was basically the worst in the league after Clarkson. I don't know that I buy that two teams were in on him.

 

[OrangeBlack]

Maybe Richards is unable to cross the border for whatever reason.  I look forward to see how this plays out.

 

[MetalRaven]

I think I remember a CFL player a few years ago being detained for having steroids at the border.  There was no arrest but the drugs were seized.  Can't seem to find the details to confirm.  I think they were DR prescribed but not declared if I remember correct???

That was my gut feeling as well, though maybe not just herbal.

My question on that though is doesn't the NHL have a substance abuse program? And wouldn't they be required/encouraged to enroll the player in one before contract termination?

Not to put too fine a point on it but if Mike Richards was caught trying to smuggle drugs over a border I'm pretty sure he'd have been arrested. That's a pretty serious crime

Right now they have been just vague enough to keep us all speculating. The steroid angle seems to be the most likely. However, wouldn't that fall under the substance abuse program? I thought substance abuse covered alcohol, herbals, chems and performance enhancers?

Nik, you are right about arrests and we would have heard something from a news outlet about anything serious. So that leaves us with something that would have to be serious enough to honestly consider flushing 29 million and yet not serious enough to be arrested for or garner mass media attention? Serious enough that they pulled out of trade talks because the GM was worried it was "Going to get out eventually"

Steroids and paraphernalia fit the bill, just not sure if para is serious enough and steroids may be too hard to hide from media. Meh, speculation can lead us down 1000's of paths. Probably best to just wait to hear what happened.

 

[OrangeBlack]

Who knows, what happened may never come out.  The key will be...how hard is Richards and/or NHLPA going to fight this.  If they don't fight it that hard....then that should speak volumes.  The Kings may not be guilty of anything other than taking advantage of the situation.    All speculation though.

 

[Bates]

I think the player and the PA will fight this vigorously, there is a dangerous precedent here for players with bad contracts.  And those aren't exactly rare. 

 

[OrangeBlack]

I think I remember a CFL player a few years ago being detained for having steroids at the border.  There was no arrest but the drugs were seized.  Can't seem to find the details to confirm.  I think they were DR prescribed but not declared if I remember correct???

That was my gut feeling as well, though maybe not just herbal.

My question on that though is doesn't the NHL have a substance abuse program? And wouldn't they be required/encouraged to enroll the player in one before contract termination?

Not to put too fine a point on it but if Mike Richards was caught trying to smuggle drugs over a border I'm pretty sure he'd have been arrested. That's a pretty serious crime

Right now they have been just vague enough to keep us all speculating. The steroid angle seems to be the most likely. However, wouldn't that fall under the substance abuse program? I thought substance abuse covered alcohol, herbals, chems and performance enhancers?

Nik, you are right about arrests and we would have heard something from a news outlet about anything serious. So that leaves us with something that would have to be serious enough to honestly consider flushing 29 million and yet not serious enough to be arrested for or garner mass media attention? Serious enough that they pulled out of trade talks because the GM was worried it was "Going to get out eventually"

Steroids and paraphernalia fit the bill, just not sure if para is serious enough and steroids may be too hard to hide from media. Meh, speculation can lead us down 1000's of paths. Probably best to just wait to hear what happened.

Interesting.  Could steroids or para be enough to dictate long term denial of border crossing?

 

[OrangeBlack]

I think the player and the PA will fight this vigorously, there is a dangerous precedent here for players with bad contracts.  And those aren't exactly rare.

If that's the case....then the flip side is that the full details of the story will probably come out.

 

[Bates]

It would be enough for a short term problem at the border but I doubt it would be enough that it would cause a wealthy person trouble in the long term.  He would probably have to jump through hoops with Homeland Security for a Visa but there are people to handle that for him.  I would have thought that a wealthy athlete would have gotten US Citizenship after this many years living there so border may be a moot point???

I think I remember a CFL player a few years ago being detained for having steroids at the border.  There was no arrest but the drugs were seized.  Can't seem to find the details to confirm.  I think they were DR prescribed but not declared if I remember correct???

That was my gut feeling as well, though maybe not just herbal.

My question on that though is doesn't the NHL have a substance abuse program? And wouldn't they be required/encouraged to enroll the player in one before contract termination?

Not to put too fine a point on it but if Mike Richards was caught trying to smuggle drugs over a border I'm pretty sure he'd have been arrested. That's a pretty serious crime

Right now they have been just vague enough to keep us all speculating. The steroid angle seems to be the most likely. However, wouldn't that fall under the substance abuse program? I thought substance abuse covered alcohol, herbals, chems and performance enhancers?

Nik, you are right about arrests and we would have heard something from a news outlet about anything serious. So that leaves us with something that would have to be serious enough to honestly consider flushing 29 million and yet not serious enough to be arrested for or garner mass media attention? Serious enough that they pulled out of trade talks because the GM was worried it was "Going to get out eventually"

Steroids and paraphernalia fit the bill, just not sure if para is serious enough and steroids may be too hard to hide from media. Meh, speculation can lead us down 1000's of paths. Probably best to just wait to hear what happened.

Interesting.  Could steroids or para be enough to dictate long term denial of border crossing?

 

[Kin]

So that leaves us with something that would have to be serious enough to honestly consider flushing 29 million and yet not serious enough to be arrested for or garner mass media attention? Serious enough that they pulled out of trade talks because the GM was worried it was "Going to get out eventually"

Well, only if you believe Lombardi which, quite frankly, I don't. Look at it through a lens of "The stuff people say about Kessel is actually true about Mike Richards and Lombardi is angry that maybe Richards lied to him about straightening out his issues" and there's really not much in the way of mystery.

 

[OrangeBlack]

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nhl/story/_/id/13173411/canadian-mounted-police-investigation-involves-mike-richards-source

Here we go.

 

[CarltonTheBear]

So there's an investigation but no charges have been brought? Still sounds likes a bull-you-know-what reason to terminate someone's contract to me.

 

[OrangeBlack]

So there's an investigation but no charges have been brought? Still sounds likes a bull-you-know-what reason to terminate someone's contract to me.

Just speculation....maybe it's an investigation into something big, & Lombardi is jumping the gun a bit. 

 

[GhostofPotvin29]

Yes, TMZ on TMLFans.  The day has come.

http://www.tmz.com/2015/06/30/nhls-mike-richards-nhl-notified-about-oxycodone-drama-at-canadian-border/

 

[L K]

So in otherwords this is incredibly murky territory and may or may not involve illegal activity still.

Based entirely on speculation I wonder if Richards had an addiction problem and that was part of the "cleanup" that Lombardi insisted on and was convinced that he should give Mike another shot.  If he has legitimate prescriptions for those drugs however I'm going to have a really hard time understanding how the Kings are going to talk their way through an appeals case.

Richards could have been stopped for a number of reasons:
1) Appeared impaired at the border (possibly using pain killers)
2) Had a stash of Oxys not in clear bottles that raises suspicion of medication that isn't prescription
3) Had a very large supply of them and got accused to trafficking
4) May not have had a prescription for them at all.

 

[WhatIfGodWasALeaf]

Yes, TMZ on TMLFans.  The day has come.

http://www.tmz.com/2015/06/30/nhls-mike-richards-nhl-notified-about-oxycodone-drama-at-canadian-border/

Meh, it was first introduced when Komisarek allegedly hit a girl in a nightclub on a west coast road trip.

Smh