Understanding “the business,” Kings complement Richards

It most likely wasn’t the easiest day for the players, who arrived at the rink this morning to learn that Mike Richards – a player who won two Stanley Cups with 14 current Kings – was placed on waivers and isn’t expected back in the near term, if he clears waivers and ultimately returns to the team at all. His locker space is now held by Jordan Nolan, who had moved from the nook of the room in which he had spent three seasons.

Richards was brought into the organization at a great cost, and the bounty he reaped wasn’t immediately harvested. The Kings went through some growing pains in 2011-12, bringing in Darryl Sutter, and ultimately Richards’ good friend in Philadelphia, Jeff Carter, and it wasn’t until the eight-over-one first round triumph in which Los Angeles dispatched Vancouver until a greater appreciation for Richards’ intelligence, style of play and ultracompetitive streak was reinforced.

“I think Rick’s intangibles were a big part of why they brought him here. He’s won at every level. He’s won pretty much everything there is to win in the hockey world,” Dustin Brown said. “I think, also, the other part of it is when you bring in a big player like Rick – and this can be said for a lot of players we’ve brought in over the last year – but it’s a message to the team that we were that team that was kind of trending in the right direction,” Dustin Brown said. “When you have a trade like that, that sends some young players out and a big piece in, the time is now is the message, I think. That’s the way I took it when the deal went down. Obviously we get Carts eight months later, or whatever it was. As a player, you get excited about that. I thought the excitement from the players’ standpoint, when Rick got here, was we’re going to make the next step. I’ve been through the rebuilding process. It’s always exciting. As a guy in this room when we traded for Rick, I was pretty excited about it.”

Robyn Regehr, on what Mike Richards being waived does to the room:
It reminds you that we’re in the business of professional sports and that business is winning. When a team isn’t winning consistently enough, there are changes that are usually made. I think really that’s what sometimes it comes down to. There are other decisions with economics and things like that now with the salary cap era. Those kinds of things happen and I don’t want to say ‘it’s a good reminder,’ but those things happen sometimes. Whether it’s getting traded or waived or anything like that. It’s part of a very big business that we’re involved with.

Regehr, on whether all the players view Richards being waived as a business decision:
I’m sure there are guys that look at it different ways. For example, a young player in here that maybe hasn’t seen that before, that would catch them by surprise. Some of the older guys that have been around have seen it before. It’s never fun to see it. Those things happen sometimes. There are all kinds of things that go on through the season with a team. Our jobs as players is just to really show up every day and be ready to be professional, come to work and prepare in order to try to win a game. That’s really all we, as players, need to be thinking about. But there is another side of that, and that you get some relationships built over time with players and people that you’re involved with. That makes it extra hard because there is an emotional attachment. It’s not just a business decision. I think those are the ones that really sting. There are guys in here that have played with Mike for quite a while and I’m sure that’s something that’s pretty tough for all of them involved right now.

Dustin Brown, on what kind of impact Richards being waived has on the organization:
From an organizational standpoint, it’s hard to answer. But from what I can comment on, what the 20 guys in here [feel], I think at the end of the day as players we understand it’s a business. But at the same time, in here we’re family so it’s really hard to see Rick go on waivers. I think we all understand it, but it’s not something that you take lightly as a group of guys, especially as a group of guys that have won together. It’s a harder thing to deal with, but it’s also what management feels is best for the team. As players, we deal with a lot of things and it’s just not very often that you see a player of Rick’s stature go on waivers. But it is what it is. It’s up to us in this room to kind of forget about it and play.

Brown, on the impact Richards had on the team when joined in 2011:
I think he brought a lot of – I think grit would probably be the one word. Prior to that, we had players that played with grit, but we didn’t have enough of them. When we brought Rick in, it kind of I think solidified our middle. I think Kopi is a 1C, but I think Jarret is ultimately a 3C, especially when Rick got here. He was playing 2C for the whole time and when you get Rick here, it kind of slots everybody properly. Again, it’s not an easy thing to do. If every team could have a goalie like Quickie and a defenseman like Drew and two centers like Rick and Kopi – you look at a lot of the really successful teams, that’s pretty much the makeup of a team. Wingers can be…more of your up and down guys and you need those guys as well, but all those really good teams have those ingredients up the middle, back and in goalie.

Tyler Toffoli, on the environment in the room with Mike Richards being put on waivers:
It’s a business and I don’t know much about that. We know that it’s time to win. We didn’t need anything to happen to this group that we have. We know that we need to start winning and it’s been mentioned before – we’ve got to pull together and play 60 minutes. There are some games where we’re playing really well and we’re not winning. Then there are games where we’re playing poorly and winning. We want to play the right way and get to the type of hockey that we want to be playing.