Brad Richards has a connection with the New York Rangers because of his association with head coach John Tortorella from 2004 when they won the Stanley Cup together in Tampa Bay.
Well, the Calgary Flames have a connection to Richards of their own.
Flames general manager Jay Feaster was the GM of the Lightning when Richards was there and there's no question that Feaster put together a package that had Richards thinking very long and hard about the option of maybe going to the Flames. The deal is believed to be in the same sort of financial neighbourhood as the Rangers' offer - maybe up around nine years at $64 million.
But as we've come to expect with a lot of these deals, there's probably a few bogus years on the end. And if that's the case, we may be looking at a real legitimate deal of, say, six years in terms of how long Richards would actually play and maybe pocket more than $60 million, or $10 million a year.
If the Flames were to get Richards, they'd love to play him on a line with Jarome Iginla and Alex Tanguay, so the Flames have made a very legitimate offer that has certainly turned Richards' head. But, there are still lots of considerations to be made.
