All season long it has been reported that the biggest hesitation
on Brad Richards part to committing long term to the Dallas Stars has been
their uncertainty in ownership. Today
that came to the forefront as according to TSN, the Dallas Stars are not
going to offer Brad Richards another contract proposal before the July 1 free
agency period begins. Bob McKenzie said
that the Stars will explore dealing the rights to Richards before the deadline,
but that would have to be approved by Richards as he would have to waive his
no-movement clause in order to be traded.
Pierre Lebrun of ESPN delves
further into the reasoning behind the decision of the Stars to not tender
another offer to Richards before the deadline.
"I think it's just common knowledge that clearly we're not going to have an owner in place by July 1," Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk told ESPN.com Thursday. "So, we know that Brad won't sign with us without a new owner. It's nothing we don't already know."
"We made Brad an offer prior to the trade deadline on a long-term deal, and it was turned down," Nieuwendyk said.
This
news is bound to restart the discussion about trading for the rights to
Richards this month, but with the recent trade for Tim Erixon taking away both
2011 second round picks, that might take the Rangers out of being a serious
contender to go that route. With Dallas
out, the Rangers best course of action might just be to wait until July 1 and
sign him that way. There will
undoubtedly be more of a frenzy going that route as opposed to dealing for his
rights, but if Richards truly wants to be here for the next stage of his career
then it will happen as he ultimately holds the cards both before and after the
July 1 free agency period begins. If this is the desired destination for Richards there is no reason for the Rangers to sacrifice assets to trade for his rights in advance.
