Just got off the conference call with Mike Richards and Dean Lombardi. Richards expressed a lot of the emotions typically expressed by players who have just been traded: optimism mixed with a bit of shackle, but reiterated frequently that he was pleased to be coming to Los Angeles.

As for Lombardi, he said Richards was the type of player he has been looking for, the type of player worth trading Brayden Schenn to acquire. He wouldn’t say, publicly, whether this move would preclude him from acquiring another top-six forward — like, say, one with a very similar name — on or after July 1. Lombardi, though, was quite forthcoming in saying that Ryan Smyth asked to be traded for family reasons and that he expected to get a deal done in the next couple days. I’ll be transcribing quotes for a while, and I’ll post as soon as possible.