Minnesota Wild name Todd Richards head coach

Fletch Jr. is getting down to business...

Source: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=281960

New Minnesota Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher has wasted no time putting his stamp on the team by hiring Todd Richards as the Wild's new head coach.

Richards has a history with Fletcher who hired him to coach the Pittsburgh Penguins' AHL affiliate Scranton-Wilkes/Barre in 2006. The 43-year old Richards spent last season as an assistant for the San Jose Sharks under Todd McLellan.

Sources have also told TSN that Wild assistant general manager Tom Lynn has been let go.

A former defenceman, Richards was drafted in the 2nd round, 33rd overall, by the Montreal Canadiens in the 1985 NHL Entry draft. He made his NHL debut with the Hartford Whalers in 1990. His NHL career consisted of eight regular season games, posting four assists. He also appeared in 11 playoff games with three assists.

Following his playing career, Richards served as an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Admirals of the AHL, capturing two West Division titles and reaching the Calder Cup Finals twice, winning the AHL title in 2004.

Wow, another rookie coach. It's going to be tough for coaches on the outside looking in. Maybe that's why Renney took the AC job in Toronto, he realized the odds of getting a HC role were slim.

Wow, who?

I like it that some new blood is being introduced to the coaching ranks. There are still jobs for some of the older guys, but I for one, am tired of the constant re-treading of older coaches. The coaching fraternity had become a real old boys network.

hemlock wrote:I like it that some new blood is being introduced to the coaching ranks. There are still jobs for some of the older guys, but I for one, am tired of the constant re-treading of older coaches. The coaching fraternity had become a real old boys network.

Hemmer, dude... you need to do something about your signature. There's all this blank space showing up on the page (or at least on my page), and it's making your 2-line post (for example) fill in 2 full screens lengths.

Weird. And distracting. Especially for a guy whose piece of crap Dell lappy is acting like it's stuck in molasses.... ugh.

rooneypoo wrote:

hemlock wrote:I like it that some new blood is being introduced to the coaching ranks. There are still jobs for some of the older guys, but I for one, am tired of the constant re-treading of older coaches. The coaching fraternity had become a real old boys network.

Hemmer, dude... you need to do something about your signature. There's all this blank space showing up on the page (or at least on my page), and it's making your 2-line post (for example) fill in 2 full screens lengths.

Weird. And distracting. Especially for a guy whose piece of crap Dell lappy is acting like it's stuck in molasses.... ugh.

Looks like it's fixed. Sorry, I was experimenting with the spacing.

Dell eh? I have a Dell laptop. Never. Again.

SpezDispenser wrote:Wow, who?

Todd Richards, a Minnesota native, comes to the Wild from his post as Assistant Coach for the San Jose Sharks. From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune today:

WILD PICKS TODD RICHARDS
Todd Richards brings with him a winning record as an AHL player and coach. The San Jose assistant coach also is sure to bring a more aggressive style of play.
Michael Russo, The Star-Tribune, June 15 2009

After nearly a decade of the same style on the ice, and the same face behind the bench, the Wild's philosophical transformation took another monumental step Monday when new General Manager Chuck Fletcher hired the complete antithesis of old coach Jacques Lemaire.

San Jose Sharks assistant coach Todd Richards -- the frontrunner from the outset of Fletcher's coaching search -- will be introduced as the second coach in Wild history at a noon news conference today at Xcel Energy Center, multiple NHL sources confirmed.

At 42, the brown-haired Richards is 21 years younger than the white-haired Lemaire.

He doesn't hail from Montreal or have a French Canadian accent. Richards is a homegrown Minnesotan, a native of Crystal and former star at Armstrong High School and with the Gophers.

And unlike Lemaire, who made defensive hockey and the neutral-zone trap a Wild staple, Richards is all about hard-nosed, up-tempo, aggressive, attacking hockey.

"He's a great fit to turn the style around," said agent Ben Hankinson, Richards' former Gophers and minor league hockey teammate. "He plays aggressive, offensive hockey. Opposed to the way the Wild has played, it'll be pretty refreshing and entertaining.

"I think it'll take time, but he'll play a lot more aggressively, a lot more in-your-face."

While Richards might not have Lemaire's 11 Stanley Cup rings and 15 years of NHL head coaching experience, he does have a track record of success as a player and coach.

He was head coach of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League from 2006 to '08, winning 98 games and taking the Baby Penguins to the Calder Cup Finals in 2008.

Fletcher, the former Penguins assistant GM and Wilkes-Barre GM, originally hired Richards upon recommendation from Penguins GM Ray Shero, who was GM of the AHL's Milwaukee Admirals when Richards was an assistant there.

The Admirals went to the Calder Cup Finals twice during his four-year tenure, winning one championship.

"I really liked his mind, his thinking. He was innovative, he was aggressive. That's how he played, and that's how he coaches," said Columbus Blue Jackets assistant coach Claude Noel, Milwaukee's head coach when Richards was an assistant.

"I don't think he will be a sit-and-watch type guy. His defensemen will be active. He'll attack and pursue the puck. He wants to get up the ice. He's an intelligent, fair coach but very demanding and very intense. Very intense."

As a player, Richards won two WCHA titles with the Gophers, a 1991 Calder Cup with the Springfield Indians, a 2001 Turner Cup with Orlando (2001) and a 2002 Swiss-B League title with Servette Geneve.

A second-round pick by the Montreal Canadiens in 1985, Richards was a pure offensive defenseman during a bright high school, college and minor league career.

He scored 30 goals and 158 assists in four years with the Gophers; in Las Vegas in 1994-95, he was IHL Defenseman of the Year after accumulating 130 points. He played in only 19 NHL games, with the Hartford Whalers, from 1990 to '92.
His father, Tom, was a top local youth coach and his brother, Travis, was also a Gophers captain.

"He was a very, very intelligent player and kind of ran our power play, which is not an easy thing to step into for somebody that young," said former Gophers teammate Pat Micheletti, who went to the Frozen Four with Richards in 1986, when he was a senior and Richards a freshman. "He was always cool, calm. You could just sense right away that he was not only a good player, but a smart player."

The one trait Richards' friends all say he has is quiet competitiveness. Whether it's NCAA pools, poker, video games or golf, Richards believes he can win.

"Two years ago, Wilkes-Barre was in over their head in the championship against Chicago," Hankinson said. "The Wolves' first-line power play had twice the budget of the whole Wilkes-Barre team. After they lost, I said to Todd, 'You had a great run. That's a talented team built to win championships.' He said, 'No way. There was a way to win, and we didn't figure out how to do it.' It was no consolation to him that it was like the Twins losing to the Yankees.

Yeah, I ended up reading up on him. Seems to have paid the dues, good luck to him.