Rangers land coveted free agent Richards

The Brad Richards watch began last October when Rangers president and general manager Glen Sather dispatched Mark Messier to scout him in Dallas.

On Saturday, the Rangers reeled in the elite playmaker they craved as the free-agent center -- who will anchor the No. 1 line and quarterback the power play -- accepted a nine-year, $60-million offer.

Four teams made massive bids for the 31-year-old free agent, but Richards "left a lot of money on the table," Sather said, to reunite with John Tortorella, the coach under whom he won a Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay in 2004.

"I've seen how Torts operates; it's worked. I know that firsthand," Richards said Saturday. "I can see how he's bringing that young team along in New York. It kind of reminds me of what he was doing with us [in Tampa]."

He said all the options were good but added that playing on an Original Six team and stable ownership were important factors. And the money's not bad.

In the front-loaded contract, Richards will be paid $12 million each of the first two years, including a $10-million signing bonus and an $8-million signing bonus. In the ensuing years, Richards will receive $9 million, $8.5 million, $8.5 million, $7 million and $1 million for each of the final three seasons, for an annual cap hit of about $6.66 million.

Sather declined to discuss whether the contract includes a no-trade clause but admitted that the offer was "tweaked" to compete with bids from Toronto, Los Angeles and Calgary.

Sather said there is no concern about the length of the deal, adding: "He's a tremendous athlete, he's in great shape, he's a workout fiend."

Richards, who scored 91 points in 2009-10 and 77 in 72 games last season (including a career-high 28 goals), said he is completely recovered from the concussion symptoms that forced him to miss 10 games after a collision with Columbus' Sami Pahlsson on Feb. 13. "I finished the season great," he said. "My body felt great, my head felt great . . . I know there is a lot of talk about those things, but it's really in the past." He said he has been training for six weeks.

Having Tortorella behind the bench may have been the tipping point. "I coached Richie for his first seven years," said Tortorella, who expects him to mentor his young players. "You can see how he's matured. You know what situations you can put him in, where early on in his career, you're not sure."

The Rangers reportedly wanted to trade for Richards' rights before he hit the open market, but they would have had to surrender young assets. The Prince Edward Island native, who had a no-movement clause, blocked all requests to waive it, knowing that his eventual new team would be stronger if they kept those players.

"I'm excited to meet some of the guys, the Callahans and Dubinskys and obviously Marian Gaborik," he said.

Sather figures that Gaborik, who dipped to 22 goals last season, will flourish with Richards. "He's the kind of player that shouldn't be handling the puck an awful lot," Sather said of Gaborik. "He's the kind of player who should be getting in and out of holes and have somebody giving him the puck at the right time."

Rather than pursue a high-priced left wing, Sather said the next step is to sign the team's restricted free agents: Dubinsky, Callahan, Artem Anisimov, Brian Boyle and Michael Sauer, all of whom will benefit from the point-a-game career stats that Richards brings, as well as an intangible. Said Sather: "It's going to bring a lot of confidence to our dressing room. We need a little help."

The Dolan family owns controlling interests in the Rangers, MSG and Cablevision. Cablevision owns Newsday.