The Brad Richards sweepstakes -- contract structure

With all the suitors swinging by to visit with Brad Richards, it's assumed that any or all of the teams sitting down with the center will offer him a contract that's front-loaded enough to get him close to the maximum salary allowed under the current CBA, 20 percent of the cap -- that would be $12.86-million on the $64.3-million cap.

Of course, that's actual salary, not annual average value; so the Rangers don't have $12.86-million in cap space for next season, but they do have $12.86-million in real dollars to give Richards.

So nothing is out of the Rangers' range in the hypothetical realm.

On we go.