A fourth-line center for much of the last three seasons, Richards has, by most accounts, lost a couple of steps and a ton of confidence - his own, and from the general manager who just last summer resisted a last window in the new CBA to buy out a player without it counting against a team's salary cap. Instead, the Kings are on the hook for $5.75 million through 2020 for what now seems to be, at best hope, a utility player.