Brad Richards has been bought out by the New York Rangers, according to multiple sources. That's not in the least bit surprising. Richards isn't being bought out because he's a bad player, he's being bought out because the Rangers had a unique and time-sensitive opportunity to get out of the negative part of the heavily front-loaded, long-term contract they signed Richards too. By using a compliance buyout on him, which is something they wouldn't have been allowed to do past this summer, they can entirely wipe his $6,666,667 annual cap hit off the books. He would have otherwise cost the Rangers though much through 2019-20, which would have been a significant problem for the team given that Richards is already 34 years old. In effect, the Rangers got the short-term benefits of frontloading his contract without having to suffer for it when that cap hit persisted through his late-30s.