Todd Richards

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United StatesUnited States  Todd Richards Ice hockey player
Todd Richards
Date of birth 20th October 1966
place of birth Crystal , Minnesota , USA
size 183 cm
Weight 88 kg
position defender
Shot hand Right
Draft
NHL Entry Draft 1985 , 2nd lap, 33rd position
Montréal Canadiens
Career stations
1985-1989 University of Minnesota
1989-1990 Sherbrooke Canadiens
1990-1993 Springfield Indians
1993-1995 Las Vegas Thunder
1995-2001 Orlando Solar Bears
2001-2002 HC Servette Genève

Todd Michael Richards (born October 20, 1966 in Crystal , Minnesota ) is a retired American ice hockey player and current coach . During his career he played for the Hartford Whalers in the National Hockey League on the position of defender . From January 2012 to October 2015 he was the head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets in the NHL. Prior to that, he coached the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins in the American Hockey League and the Minnesota Wild from the NHL as head coach.

Career

Richards first played during his school years at Robbinsdale Armstrong High School in the US state of Minnesota , before he went to the University of Minnesota after graduating . In addition to his studies, he played there for the university team in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association , a league in the game operations of the National Collegiate Athletic Association . In the four seasons between 1985 and 1989, Richards was one of the WCHA's outstanding offensive defenders. He recorded a total of 158 scorer points in 167 games - including a season with 51 points alone - and was elected to the league's Second All-Star Team three times between 1987 and 1989. In addition, he reached the final tournament for the NCAA championship with the team in the 1986/87 and 1988/89 seasons. In 1987 they made it to the semi-finals and two years later to the final, where they were defeated by Harvard University 4: 3 in overtime . Still, Richards was elected to the All-Tournament Team.

After the American was selected in the second round of the 1985 NHL Entry Draft in 33rd position by the Montréal Canadiens , he switched to the professional camp after completing his college education in the summer of 1989. In his rookie year in the 1989/90 game year, the Canadiens first used the defender in their farm team in the American Hockey League with the Sherbrooke Canadiens . There he reached 24 points in 71 encounters, making him one of the four defenders of the team with the highest points. The following summer he completed two games for the NHL team as part of the pre-season training camp of the Montreal Canadiens taking place in Sweden and Russia , although a tachycardia attack had been detected during a training session . The two games remained at the same time the only ones for the Franco-Canadian team, as he was transferred to the Hartford Whalers shortly after the beginning of the 1990/91 season , after a few games again in Montréals farm team . There he came in the course of the season also mainly in the AHL with the Springfield Indians , for which he scored 51 points in 71 games, but the Whalers enabled him to make his debut in the National Hockey League when Richards played in two season games . He also played six playoff games. The defender also spent most of the following playing year with the Indians in the AHL, but was also used again in the NHL. The six games in the regular season and five more in the playoffs were also the last NHL games of his career, making Richards one of only a few players to complete more playoff than regular season games in the NHL. Another season followed, which he spent exclusively in the AHL before his contract with the Whalers expired.

In the summer of 1993, Richards joined the Las Vegas Thunder from the International Hockey League . In his first year in the IHL, he made the leap into the Second All-Star Team of the league. A year later, at the end of the 1994/95 season, he was even named the best defender in the league, which was awarded the Governor's Trophy , and was elected to the First All-Star Team. At the beginning of the 1995/96 season, the defender moved within the IHL to the newly founded Orlando Solar Bears , which he remained loyal to until the league was dissolved after the 2000/01 season. During this time, Richards played the most successful ice hockey of his career. In the first season with the Solar Bears he set personal career highs with 19 points, 54 assists and 73 points. Furthermore, he was once again elected to the First All-Star Team of the league and reached the final of the Turner Cup three times with the team , which Orlando won for the only time in 2001 after defeats in 1996 and 1999. By resolution of the IHL after the 2000/01 season the Americans moved in the summer of 2001 as a free agent for HC Servette Genève in the Swiss National League B . After a season in which he was voted the best defender in the league, he finally ended his active career in the spring of 2002.

Following the end of his career, the Milwaukee Admirals from the American Hockey League hired him as Peter Horachek's assistant coach . In total, Richards worked four years as an assistant coach in Milwaukee, including three years under Claude Noël , who had taken over the head coach of Horachek for the 2003/04 season. The greatest success for Richards at this time was winning the Calder Cup in the same season in which Noël first acted as head coach. In the summer of 2006, his time as assistant coach to the Admirals ended after the Pittsburgh Penguins had offered him the head coaching position of their AHL farm team, the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins . Richards filled this position for two years and won well over 40 games with the team in both seasons. In the second year of his tenure, he even led the team into the final series of the Calder Cup, where they were defeated by the Chicago Wolves in six games. Despite the success with the team, he canceled his contract in the summer of 2008 and accepted an offer from the San Jose Sharks from the NHL, as their new coach Todd McLellan , next to Trent Yawney and Jay Woodcroft , wanted to have him as an assistant. There, the American worked mainly with the power play specialists and supported McLellan in his work with the attackers. In the summer of 2009, he left the Northern California team and was appointed head coach of league rivals Minnesota Wild . In the two following seasons he missed the playoffs with the Wild and was removed from office in April 2011.

In June 2011, Richards was introduced as an assistant coach with the Columbus Blue Jackets . He filled the vacant position after Bob Boughner left the franchise a month earlier. In January 2012, after Scott Arniel's dismissal, he was promoted to head coach on an interim basis with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Although Columbus narrowly missed the playoffs in the 2012/13 season, the Blue Jackets extended his contract, which ran until the end of the 2014/15 season, for another season at the beginning of July 2013. The following year Richards reached the playoffs with the Blue Jackets, but retired in the first round.

In October 2015 he was fired and replaced by John Tortorella after losing all of the first seven games with the team. After the 2015/16 season, he took part in the 2016 World Cup as assistant coach to John Hynes with Team USA , where he finished fourth with the team.

Achievements and Awards

As a player

  • 1987 WCHA Second All-Star Team
  • 1988 WCHA Second All-Star Team
  • 1989 WCHA Second All-Star Team
  • 1989 NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team
  • 1991 Calder Cup win with the Springfield Indians
  • 1994 IHL Second All-Star Team

As a trainer

Career statistics

As a player

Regular season Play-offs
season team league GP G A. Pts PIM GP G A. Pts PIM
1985/86 University of Minnesota NCAA 38 6th 23 29 38
1986/87 University of Minnesota NCAA 49 8th 43 51 70
1987/88 University of Minnesota NCAA 34 10 30th 40 26th
1988/89 University of Minnesota NCAA 46 6th 32 38 60
1989/90 Sherbrooke Canadiens AHL 71 6th 18th 24 73 5 1 2 3 6th
1990/91 Fredericton Canadiens AHL 3 0 1 1 2 - - - - -
Springfield Indians AHL 71 10 41 51 62 14th 2 8th 10 2
Hartford Whalers NHL 2 0 4th 4th 2 6th 0 0 0 2
1991/92 Springfield Indians AHL 43 6th 23 29 33 8th 0 3 3 2
Hartford Whalers NHL 6th 0 0 0 2 5 0 3 3 4th
1992/93 Springfield Indians AHL 78 13 42 55 53 9 1 5 6th 2
1993/94 Las Vegas Thunder IHL 80 11 35 46 122 5 1 4th 5 18th
1994/95 Las Vegas Thunder IHL 80 12 49 61 130 9 1 2 3 6th
1995/96 Orlando Solar Bears IHL 81 19th 54 73 59 23 4th 9 13 8th
1996/97 Orlando Solar Bears IHL 82 9 36 45 134 10 0 1 1 4th
1997/98 Orlando Solar Bears IHL 75 6th 37 43 68 17th 3 8th 11 13
1998/99 Orlando Solar Bears IHL 67 11 26th 37 61 16 3 7th 10 14th
1999/00 Orlando Solar Bears IHL 43 7th 18th 25th 26th 6th 0 5 5 4th
2000/01 Orlando Solar Bears IHL 75 9 28 37 60 16 2 11 13 8th
2001/02 HC Servette Genève NLB 34 11 26th 37 18th 13 3 13 16 10
NCAA overall 167 30th 128 158 194
IHL total 583 84 283 367 660 102 14th 47 61 75
AHL total 266 35 125 160 213 36 4th 18th 22nd 12
NLB total 34 11 26th 37 18th 13 3 13 16 10
NHL overall 8th 0 4th 4th 4th 11 0 3 3 6th

( Legend for player statistics: Sp or GP = games played; T or G = goals scored; V or A = assists scored ; Pkt or Pts = scorer points scored ; SM or PIM = penalty minutes received ; +/− = plus / minus balance; PP = overpaid goals scored ; SH = underpaid goals scored ; GW = winning goals scored; 1  play-downs / relegation )

As a trainer

team season regular season Play-offs
Games S. N OTL Pts space S. N result
Milwaukee Admirals 2002/03 Assistant trainer under Peter Horachek
Milwaukee Admirals 2003/04 Assistant coach under Claude Noël
Milwaukee Admirals 2004/05 Assistant coach under Claude Noël
Milwaukee Admirals 2005/06 Assistant coach under Claude Noël
Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins 2006/07 80 51 23 6th 108 11 5 6th Conference semifinals
Wilkes-Barre / Scranton Penguins 2007/08 80 47 26th 7th 101 23 14th 9 Calder Cup Final
San Jose Sharks 2008/09 Assistant coach under Todd McLellan
Minnesota Wild 2009/10 82 38 36 8th 84 - - - not qualified
Minnesota Wild 2010/11 82 39 35 8th 86 - - - not qualified
Columbus Blue Jackets 2011/12 41 18th 21st 2 38 - - - not qualified
Columbus Blue Jackets 2012/13 48 24 17th 7th 55 - - - not qualified
Columbus Blue Jackets 2013/14 82 43 32 7th 93 6th 2 4th Conference quarterfinals
Columbus Blue Jackets 2014/15 82 42 35 5 89 - - - not qualified
Columbus Blue Jackets 2015/16 7th 0 7th 0 0 - - - -
AHL total 160 98 49 13 209 34 19th 15th 2 participations
NHL overall 424 204 183 37 445 6th 2 4th 1 participation

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Columbus Blue Jackets name Todd Richards Assistant Coach. Columbus Blue Jackets, June 20, 2011, accessed June 20, 2011 .
  2. ^ Columbus Blue Jackets Announce Resignation of Assistant Coach Bob Boughner. Columbus Blue Jackets, May 18, 2011, accessed June 20, 2011 .