Mike Richards charged with drug possession, Hurricanes re-sign Elias Lindholm plus updates on Nicklas Backstrom, Patrick Berglund, Scott Gomez and more.
RCMP charge Mike Richards with possession of a controlled substance.
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Former LA Kings center Mike Richards was charged yesterday with possession of a controlled substance (Oxycodone). The charges come following an RCMP investigation regarding an incident in June involving Richards at a Canadian border crossing. He is schedule to appear in Emerson Provincial Court on Sept. 10. The Kings subsequently terminated Richards’ contract, leading to the NHLPA filed a grievance on his behalf. No date for the grievance hearing has been set.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: This won’t hurt the PA’s grievance case. As noted in the piece, the concern here for the PA isn’t the reason behind Richards’ termination, but the precedent it could set. The Kings have been accused of cherry picking here, as they haven’t terminated defenseman Slava Voynov’s contract after he was jailed 90 days for misdemeanor domestic violence. It’s believed the Kings prefer to retain Voynov because he’s of greater value to their roster than the declining Richards.
CSN MID-ATLANTIC: cited an interview Washington Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom recently gave to a Swedish newspaper claiming he won’t be recovered from hip surgery in time for the start of this coming season.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: Depending upon how long Backstrom could be sidelined, Evgeny Kuznetsov could slide up into Backstrom’s spot on the first line and Andre Burakovsky could take over the second-line center role. They could also sign a free-agent center, though pickings are slim at this point.
NEWSOBSERVER.COM: The Carolina Hurricanes signed forward Elias Lindholm to a two-year contract extension worth $5.4 million. He’ll be paid $2.5 million in 2016-17 and $2.9 million in 2017-18.
SPECTOR’S NOTE: A fair bridge deal for both sides. Lindholm is a promising young forward who tallied 17 goals and 39 points in 81 games in his sophomore campaign last season. Only 20 years old, Lindholm has a bright future with the Hurricanes.
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH: Blues center Patrik Berglund will undergo surgery on his right shoulder today. He’s expected to be sidelined for four months. The club announced they’ve invited center Scott Gomez to training camp on a tryout basis.
THE BOSTON GLOBE: The Bruins will open training camp on September 18.
NJ.COM: Staff changes continue for the New Jersey Devils, as they recently cut ties with longtime team physician Barry Fisher.
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Former NHL player Sergei Gusev received a six-month ban from the Russian Hockey Federation for a breach of their anti-doping rules.
There is 1 significant difference between Voynov’s situation & Richards. Well 2 actually, Voynov was suspended immediately by the NHL but the fundamental difference is disclosure. Voynov & his agent notified the NHL & LA Kings immediately of his offense as required under the CBA. Neither Richards nor his agent did so. The kings found out weeks after the fact by accident at the draft via the media. This is the contractual breach & really it has little to do with the offense other than the breach of notification about such offense.
The issue with the NHLPA as you state is precedent. If the NHLPA losses this issue it has a significant impact on future contract terminations. Is this non disclosure sufficient grounds for contract termination. My opinion is yes it is a material breach of the terms but whether that warrants full termination of Richards entire contract is another matter. Perhaps a 1 year suspension with out pay or other consequence?
There are other potential issues but not grounds for termination. Richards promised to come to camp in shape & there are concerns he didn’t do so but none of these are grounds for termination but this certainly isn’t cherry picking. LA had no grounds under the CBA to terminate Voynov’s contract & allowed the NHL as required under the CBA to determine the punishment which they did & is still being served.
The two situations are much more different than notification of the team.
First, the LA Kings claim a material breach of their contract by Richards. Whether that relates to the notification, or his playing shape is not clear, but the Kings are going to have to explain what that breach was for.
In the case of Richards, substance abuse is dealt with in the CBA. The CBA has a clear process in which players are to be dealt with in the event of substance abuse, i.e. treatment, therapy, and evaluation by medical professionals of the player’s response to treatment. Given that none of this has occurred with Richards, I doubt the Kingas are going to be successful that Richards substance abuse is the basis for the material breach. It would undoubtedly fail.
So the next argument the Kings will try to make? Is it the notification provision of the contract? I don’t know the specific language of the notification provision, but given the circumstances, I doubt the Kings succeed here either. What was Richards supposed to be notifying the Kings about? Being stopped at the border? Millions of people are stopped at the border every year, I hardly think that meets the threshold of the notification provision. Remember, he hadn’t been charged, we still don’t know the circumstances behind his having the pain killers with him are, did he have a prescription? Did he not have it with him at the time of the crossing? Was he using the pain killers under medical supervision? There are a lot of facts that need to be established.
But what is clear, is that as of the date of the termination of the contract, Richards was not charged for anything.
The last issue about Richards playing shape, well that is purely subjective. Any coach on any team at any level has yelled at players for not being in shape, and if that’s all it took to terminate a contract, there would be a lot more players that Richards who ought to worry… (*ahem* kessel).
Voynov assaulted his wife on Oct 19th, was arrested on Oct 20th, so the idea that he notified the team immediately belies the fact that it had already been widely reported what happened. And it was the league who imposed the penalty (leave with pay) not the team. With Richards, the Kings terminated the contract, not the League.
This brings me to my final point. There is a delicate dance that occurs between professional hockey players and pain killers. I can accept that players in the league have from time to time developed a dependency on pain killers while trying to play through injury, and in that context, its for the team. It doesn’t seem improbable to me, that a player who plays like Richards might become susceptible to pain killers all in the service of his team? And how might it look if his first use of painkillers came while under the care of a team physician.
Beating your wife, is beating your wife. It’s not as clear as that with Richards. I hope that whatever help he needs is made available to him by the league and by the team.
fromthenorth,
Don’t write such long responses.. Just a tip
Although Richards was not charged until yesterday, he was detained and was told that he could not leave Canada until further ordered. At the time Lombardi found out about Richards’ border incident, he supposedly had two potential trade scenarios that he had to terminate immediately after he found out about this incident. If one of those trade scenarios had been agreed upon, especially if it would have involved the Kings 2015 first round pick, the consequences could have been really bad for the teams involved in the trade. Basically, Lombardi was bargaining with a chip he did not have.
As far as Richards vs Voynov I’m also curious about the immigration part of each offense as it’s my understanding is it is much more difficult if not impossible to freely cross the border with a drug charge on your record but I’m no lawyer so I could easily be wrong.
Not being able to play over 20% of his games because Richards can’t travel could certainly be perceived as being a violation of his contract. Maybe?