Photo credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

Photo credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

Not bought out. Straight-up released. Kings statement:

“The Los Angeles Kings today have exercised the team’s right to terminate the contract of Mike Richards for a material breach of the requirements of his Standard Player’s Contract. We are not prepared to provide any more detail or to discuss the underlying grounds for the contract termination at this time.”

Whoa. Not sure the last time I’ve seen a player straight-up released for breach of contract. Wonder if it had something to do with his off-ice habits?

Now, the Kings were on the hook for a hefty $14 million buyout and cap hit. So they had the incentive to find an angle here, but me thinks Richie’s about to lawyer up.

Somewhere, Paul Holmgren has himself a good, maniacal laugh.

Voila_Capture 2015-06-29_03-06-34_PM

I bet there’s about to be a lot more to this story.