MOVE TO NHL TOUGH DECISION FOR RICHARDS

Do you know the way to San Jose?

Todd Richards might not know the route just yet, but he will shortly.

Richards, 41, has accepted an offer to join the San Jose Sharks as an assistant coach on Todd McLellan’s staff.  He leaves Wilkes-Barre/Scranton after two highly-successful seasons behind the Penguins bench.

ONE-ON-ONE WITH TODD RICHARDS:
Part 1 (mp3) | Part 2 (mp3)

“It was a very, very difficult decision,” said Richards, who was contacted by San Jose less than a week ago to discuss the job. “The position was offered to me, I don’t know if it was Thursday or Friday.  My kids were playing in a hockey tournament out in Delaware over the weekend.  I didn’t sleep, I don’t know if I ate much, and I certainly was grumpy.  I didn’t talk to too many people, because of the decision I had to make.  It was consuming me.

“From a professional standpoint and to most people out in the general public, it would seem like a no brainer.  But when you’re happy, when you’re content with your lifestyle and the way life is going for yourself, and also your children and your wife, it becomes a more difficult decision.”

Richards joined the Penguins on August 3, 2006, when he was named to replace Joe Mullen as head coach of the team.  In his first season in Wilkes-Barre, Richards guided the club to a 51-23-2-4 record, tying the team records for home wins, road wins and overall wins in the process.  He and assistant Dan Bylsma were named to guide the PlanetUSA All-Stars at the 2007 AHL All-Star Classic in Toronto after posting a 26-7-2-3 mark to start the season.

Last season, Richards helmed a team that went 47-26-3-4, captured its second East Division regular season title, and went on to appear in the Calder Cup Finals against the Chicago Wolves. 

All of that success helped to bring Richards’ name to the forefront when the Sharks began the search to fill out their coaching staff.

“I got a phone call from Ray [Shero, Pittsburgh general manager] on Wednesday…San Jose was requesting permission to speak to me.  And Ray asked if that’s something that I wanted to pursue, and I told him yes, I would like to see.  It just kind of took off from there. 

“Doug Wilson called me first and I had a brief conversation with him.  Todd McLellan, the head coach, called me later that night, and again I had a great conversation with him.  And then the next morning Doug Wilson followed up again.  Just in our conversations, even before talking to them, I wasn’t sure how serious it was.  I figured they were interviewing a number of candidates and they would gradually whittle that down to get to their guy.  But through our conversations, I recognized it was a little bit more serious than that.  I knew it was going to be…something was going to happen.  I was going to be put in a spot where I was going to have to make a real difficult decision.”

Richards was an assistant with Milwaukee when McLellan was coaching in Houston, and has a bit of an idea about the style his new boss plans to implement in San Jose.

“I like playing a certain way.  I like playing aggressive and fast, and let’s have the puck and let’s go.  Let’s play offense rather than defense.  In talking with Todd, it seems that he shares the same coaching philosophy.”
Like any player who passes through the American Hockey League, Richards had hoped that Wilkes-Barre/Scranton would serve as a stepping stone to the NHL.  But what he didn’t realize when he became a Penguin was how much of a pull the area would have on his family and himself.

“From a personal standpoint it’s really tough, I’ve had some emotional conversations with people,” he said.  “You come to an area, you lay down your roots a little bit, especially when you have kids, because you meet a lot more people through your kids.  And we’ve met a lot of great people through our kids and youth hockey. 

“I’ve enjoyed every conversation.  You learn a lot, and that’s the great thing about the area.  I don’t want to say that it’s a little town, but you get the little town feel.  But it’s a tremendous hockey town.  People have a great passion for it, and they certainly support the team.  It’s been great, my two years.  And I can honestly say this, if I ever had the chance or it ever worked out again where I was going to be a head coach in the American Hockey League, this would be the place that I would want to come back too.  I don’t think it’s going to be open, because it is a tough spot to get to.  I was very, very fortunate to end up here.”