Richards Excited, Ready for Fresh Opportunity Behind Bench with Preds

Todd Richards spent about as much time in NHL Bubbles this past summer as anyone else.
Two-plus months away from family and friends was worth it - Richards earned a Stanley Cup ring as an assistant coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning in September - but all of that extra time in a hotel room also gave the 54-year-old plenty of time to think about life, both professionally and personally.
So, even though he went back to Tampa with the sport's ultimate prize, the Robbinsdale, Minnesota, native was ready for something new.

"You spend 65 days in a bubble, you do have a lot of time to reflect, and I think it was one of those moments where I felt like a change was needed for me as a person and as a coach,"
Richards said on the latest episode of the Preds Official Podcast, in his first interview since joining the Predators
. "The opportunity presented itself to come in and join Nashville, and I was very fortunate there."
The hiring of Richards as an assistant rounds out Head Coach John Hynes's staff behind the Nashville bench with Assistant Coaches Dan Lambert and Dan Hinote also filling roles. Richards has the most NHL coaching experience of the group having been a head coach in both Minnesota and Columbus and an assistant in Tampa Bay and San Jose.
The move also brings things full circle for Richards in a way; he began his coaching career as an assistant with Nashville's AHL affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals, from 2002-06. That first stop included a Calder Cup Championship with the Ads in 2004, just the start of what has turned out to be a successful transition behind the bench for Richards following his playing days.
Now, he's ready for the next challenge with the franchise that gave him his first shot.
"My first year of coaching [in 2002 with the Predators organization], I remember what it was like, and it's nothing like what it is right now," Richards said. "[Preds General Manager] David [Poile], and everyone that's worked with David, have done a tremendous job growing the sport in Nashville into what it is today… It's an exciting place to come watch the game, it's an exciting place to play a game… and with John Hynes creating his brand on this team and putting his fingerprint on it, it will be exciting just to be a part of it and try to help out in any way that I can. We're all excited."
Richards is also excited to get out of the car.
He's done a lot of driving to make sure things are in order since joining the Preds - first from Tampa to Massachusetts, then to Nashville for the first time, then back to Tampa and now up to the Music City once more. That should be it for the mileage, however, and Richards has now turned his full attention to his new club and what will be asked of him.
"We're going to be sitting down as a group of coaches… and follow John's lead and what he's looking for," Richards said. "I know he's already got things mapped out, what he wants to cover as coaches, and it's coming up with a game plan. It's coming up with systematic play, and we've already had some discussions, more with personnel, and those types of things.
"I'm familiar with really all the guys on the team, but I think as coaches, sometimes you still have to get in to really know the players - what they're going to do, how they're going to react in every situation. I'm excited about the group. I'm excited about [a grittier] brand of hockey and that style of hockey."
Richards, who has worked under Hynes before with Team USA at the 2016 World Championship, says he came away from that experience knowing Hynes had a bright future in the game. Richards believes Hynes is a great communicator with an outstanding mix of personality and professionalism, and the chance to work with him again carried as much attraction to the position as anything else.
"With John, it was something new, and I think those new things excite me," Richards said. "I remember coming out of that World Championship thinking that John Hynes is going to be a really good coach for a long time. I have a lot of respect for him, just in his organization to how he communicates, and the other thing that he has is he's got a great personality and a great sense of humor. He's very serious, and that's where you want to be as a professional, but there's also those moments where he's more personable and funny, and it makes the job and coming to the rink enjoyable."
Richards knows exactly what it's like to be in Hynes's position too, and he's been able to find that balance between being a head coach and an assistant coach during his different stops around the League.
"I'm still a guy that likes to have the professionalism and those types of things, but you can be a little bit different with the players at different times, because I think it is a different relationship as an assistant coach than being a head coach," Richards said. "The head guy has a ton of responsibility and a lot going on where the mind never stops, and as an assistant coach, you still have your responsibilities, you still have your jobs that you have to do and you still have to help players grow, but the other thing that you want as a coach is you want to help the other coaches to grow too. I want to come in there, and I want to hopefully create some new thoughts, some new dialogue, some new ways to do things. I'm looking for the same thing in my direction. It's that ability to come in and just stimulate, and I think John's like that, very open to ideas and suggestions and those types of things. It was a good step for me to come here and see how he conducts himself."
The exact dates for training camp and the 2021 season remain to be seen, but Richards knows that first puck drop with the Preds will come soon enough. Richards says it will be up to the coaching staff to be the driver of the energy that will trickle down through the leadership and the rest of the locker room, and he's confident that can happen with this group of players Poile has assembled.
"That inner competition on a team becomes palpable when it works, and you can feel it when you're playing as a team and you're playing as a group of individuals," Richards said. "So, it's going to be all of us coaches from day one working as a team, getting the players to buy in as a team and then obviously the players individually buying into that team concept."
Once that happens, Richards says, any club has the capability to do something great. He would know - it was only two months ago he was lifting the Stanley Cup over his head - and for all he's already accomplished in this League, it's fair to say Richards has never been more optimistic about what's ahead.
He wants to be in Nashville, and just like all of his players, he wants to win here too.
"No. 1, as coaches, it's getting on the same page, sitting down and having good dialogue and good discussions, then coming up with a good game plan, then trying to implement that and getting the players to buy into what we're selling," Richards said. "Once we get that from the players, we'll have success. We will."