Rangers' Brad Richards calls 2013 season a 'mess'

Rangers center Brad Richards said this season was "a mess."(Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images)

New York Rangers center Brad Richards said Monday he wants to remain with team but knows that he can be a candidate for a buyout this offseason.

Richards also said this season was a “mess” and his struggles led to him being a healthy scratch both Games 4 and 5 of the team’s Eastern Conference Semifinal series against the Boston Bruins. The Rangers were eliminated in five games.

Richards, 33, is the league's second-highest paid player and made $12 million this season. He has seven years left on a nine-year, $60 million deal he signed in 2011.

“I signed here to be a Ranger a lot longer than a year and a half,” he said, via ESPN.com. “I still hope to do that, but I gotta take care of how I can play and that’s all on me.

"That’s been written since probably a week into the season. That’s the business side of it. I’m playing hockey no matter what," Richards said about a possible buyout.