Is Brad Richards in Play?

Normally I do not get caught up in the rumors at the trade deadline but this one was too much to pass up. If you asked me even just three weeks ago if Brad Richards of the Dallas Stars could be traded at the deadline I would have shrugged you off.

No way, the Stars were a playoff team atop the Pacific and they never would have traded Richards at the deadline. Richards would never be traded - it was an off-season move, if it was even going to happen at all.

But three weeks is a long time and the Stars have gone into free fall. Several Stars players have sustained injuries and even Richards himself is injured at the moment. If, and it is a big if, the Stars continue to lose, Richards could be involved in that big trade at the deadline.

The Stars will command a huge return for Richards at the deadline if he is traded. As a Flames fan, do you go for him now, in the off-season, or not at all?

Signing Richards would mean adding a 31-year old player at the cost of several young prospects and/or picks. But Richards also represents the long sought-after holy grail for the Flames--that true elite #1 centre.

What do you do?