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Brad Richards to make decision on Saturday, Calgary Flames in the mix?

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From the “where the heck did this come from” file, there are reports that the Calgary Flames have made a late push to lure Brad Richards to Alberta. Even though they weren’t one of the teams to make an in-person pitch to Richards, reports tell us that the Flames extended a 9-year deal worth $64 million. For the first time, we have an idea of the money and terms that teams are throwing at the prize of this year’s free agent class.

We knew it could get out of control, but $7.1 million per season will undoubtedly put some of them out of the running. The Tampa Bay Lightning said they were out of the running and the Buffalo Sabres decided not to make their scheduled pitch to Richards after they landed Ville Leino from the Flyers. Richards said he’s narrowed it down to 4 or 5 teams—which is better than the 30 teams that were in the mix at the beginning of today. Straight from the source, Tony Ambrogio (freelance reporter for SportsNet) learned that this won’t turn into an Ilya Kovalchuk situation like last year:

“Brad Richards says he “really didn’t expect it to turn into this” as far as all the interest.”No need to drag it” past tomorrow.”

New York Rangers: Going into the day, the New York Rangers were the favorite to procure Richards’ services at the end of the fiasco. Between the Rangers need for a top-flight center, a major media market, cap space, and Richards past relationship with John Tortorella, it seemed like everything was in place. TSN reported throughout the morning that Richards planned on talking to the Rangers at the end of the process to give them a chance to match any other offers out there. By the end of the day, there’s no reason to think they aren’t still in the mix.

Toronto Maple Leafs: The Leafs were the first team to meet with Richards at the Newport Sports Management building in Mississauga, ON. Maple Leafs executive Dave Nonis made the pitch with GM Brian Burke visiting troops overseas on Canada Day. The meeting reportedly lasted about 45 minutes. The Leafs would love to bring in Richards to be their #1 center feeding pucks to sniper Phil Kessel for 82 games next season. With deep pockets and plenty of cap space, the Leafs were expected to extend one of the most lucrative deals.

Los Angeles Kings: After a rough start at Newport Sports Management, the Kings brought out all the stops to lure Richards to the West Coast. They brought an entourage of representatives including CEO of Anschutz Entertainment Group (Kings parent company) Tim Leiweke, GM Dean Lombardi, three coaches, a director of scouting, and even their VP of communications. The center piece of their pitch was a video presentation that featured southern Californian stars such as Kobe Bryant and Jerry Bruckheimer. Afterwards, Leiweke said he was proud of the pitch:

“This is the best effort I’ve ever seen, in chasing a player for the Kings. That’s for sure. They were very impressed with the video, and I’m hoping one day we will share the video. We had a lot of people help us and a lot of people speak on our behalf. Some of the people who spoke on our behalf shocked Brad and his agents, and they will shock our fans a little bit, the help that we got here. So this was a good L.A. effort. L.A. showed well here, and I’m proud of the job we did. We’ll see what happens, but certainly, regardless of what happens, it’s nice to be held in this regard now. We’re one of the big boys, and that’s certainly how they looked at it today.”

Philadelphia Flyers: Say what you want about the Flyers recent moves—at least they’ve been interesting. After signing Jaromir Jagr, it was widely assumed that the Flyers were out of the Richards sweepstakes because they were out of cap space. One call to Dale Tallon, one Kris Versteeg trade, and one conference call to Brad Richards and that logic was turned on its head. Nick Kypreos reported that the Flyers made a “solid pitch to Brad Richards that may make them frontrunners.” Scott Burnside doesn’t think the Flyers are in the Final Four, but stranger things have happened.

Calgary Flames: The last team that we heard enter the fray was the Calgary Flames. Even though they didn’t make their presentation in person, they reportedly threw around serious money that deserved serious attention. New Flames GM Jay Feaster has a relationship with Richards from their days in Tampa Bay and captain Jarome Iginla reportedly called Richards in hopes of wooing the free agent.