Minnesota Wild Introduce Todd Richards as New Head Coach

On June 15^th, 2009 Todd Richards was announced as the new Head Coach for the Minnesota Wild. He will take the reigns from Jacques Lemaire who was the only one to stand behind the bench for the Wild, until now.

The main guy targeted for this position, Richards comes from a successful regular season as an Assistant Coach for the San Jose Sharks, working with Todd McLellan.

Richards, 42 is a native of Minnesota. Born in Crystal, and a former star for the local Armstrong High School, and with the University of Minnesota as a Gopher.

His professional career began when he was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens as a player in the 1985 Entry Draft. He finally took off to the AHL to play with the Sherbrooke Canadiens during the 1989-90 season. From there he was traded to the Springfield Indians and ended up winning the Calder Cup in 1991 with the Indians. After two more seasons with the Indians, he began playing in the now defunct IHL. He spent two seasons with the Las Vegas Thunder and six with the Orlando Solar Bears. He finished and retired his playing career in Switzerland.

After retiring, he became an assistant coach for the Milwaukee Admirals for four seasons. In each season, the Admirals made the post-season and in 2004 finally winning the Calder Cup, by sweeping the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins.

On August 3^rd of 2006, Richards was introduced as the new Head Coach for the Wilkes Barre/Scranton Penguins and guided them to a 51-24-2-4 record, for second best that year. The Penguins advanced to the Eastern Finals, but eventually lost. He also took them to the 2008 Calder Cup Finals.

Being considered as the successor to Michel Therrien of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Richards took off to San Jose to become apart of the new Coaching staff; becoming an Assistant Coach.

While in Pittsburgh, Todd Richards had a lot of good relationships, one being with current Pittsburgh Penguins General Manager, Ray Shero and former Penguins Assistant GM and WBS Penguins General Manager, Chuck Fletcher who now is the new GM of the Minnesota Wild.

Richards will bring a different style to Minnesota. The Wild used to being a very defensive minded, trap-instilled under the reigns of Jacques Lemaire. Now Richards will bring the gritty and grind, in your face, aggressiveness he used in the AHL.

Whether or not he succeeds will depend on player movement and re-signing of key offensive players.