Luke Richardson is no stranger to Nashville.
He’s been on the ice at Bridgestone Arena for plenty of occasions during his 1,417 game playing career as an opponent. He’s stood behind the bench as an assistant and head coach over parts of 12 seasons in the NHL.
He even stopped in town years ago on a summer motorcycle trip and relished the chance to visit the Country Music Hall of Fame.
“I’m a big Elvis Presley fan, so that fit perfectly on that occasion,” Richardson said over the phone.
But come this autumn, the 56-year-year old native of Ottawa, Ont., will do something he’s never done in the Music City before - step behind the home team’s bench.
The Predators hired Richardson as an assistant coach on Tuesday morning, the latest stop in a life through professional hockey that has now spanned five decades. With a wealth of experience in the game, Richardson will join Head Coach Andrew Brunette’s staff to work with Nashville’s defensemen, a role that suits him perfectly.
A reliable, aggressive, stay-at-home blueliner during his playing days across 21 NHL campaigns, Richardson will serve as a fresh voice for the Preds as they look to revitalize their group following a disappointing 2024-25 season - and he’s more than ready for the new challenge.
“It's very exciting,” Richardson said of his new gig. “I know the team well from being a coach in the League, and I know they had a great year two years ago, and obviously a little step backwards last year. But sometimes for a team to make that big step, you have to take a step back and learn from it. They've got some great champions on the team that are going to help push the team forward this year, so I’m just looking forward to being a part of it.”
Richardson spent parts of the previous three seasons as head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks. Prior to his tenure in Chicago, he served as an assistant coach for the Montreal Canadiens (2018-22), New York Islanders (2017-18) and Ottawa Senators (2008-12). Richardson also spent four campaigns as head coach of the AHL’s Binghamton Senators from 2012-16.
With the hiring of Richardson, all four of Nashville’s bench coaches - including fellow assistants Derek McKenzie and Darby Hendrickson - played in the NHL, appearing in a combined 3,656 regular-season games.
Like all coaches, Richardson keeps tabs around the rest of the League, and as he watched the Florida Panthers defeat the Edmonton Oilers in the Stanley Cup Final over the past couple of weeks, he took notes as to what allowed each club to reach the Final in back-to-back years.
“The teams in the Final, you see just how well they play together, and how they mix their offense and their defense into offense, and everything just flows,” Richardson said. “That’s one thing that I'm hoping to bring in and help with. When I was a player, I was a defensive guy, more of a stay-at-home type, but I believe now, you have to be able to transition pucks, playing defense as quick as possible to get the puck into our forwards’ hands. We’ve got some great offensive forwards that can obviously score goals.”
Richardson is not only looking forward to working with Nashville’s veteran defensemen like Roman Josi and Brady Skjei, but also developing younger talents on the backend like Jeremy Lauzon, Justin Barron and Adam Wilsby, to name a few.
After beginning his playing career in Toronto during the late 1980s, Richardson witnessed firsthand what it was like to be mentored when his boyhood idol, the legendary Borje Salming, took Richardson under his wing and offered advice between shifts.
That tutelage made quite an impact on the-then teenager, and as Richardson grew into a veteran player, he began to take on the role of mentoring the new wave.
A transition into coaching was a natural fit for Richardson, and while over 15 years have passed since he last suited up as a player in the NHL, he still uses that experience behind the bench.
“I still try and talk to the players like a player,” Richardson said. “I'm not a player anymore, but I try and talk to them in their language that they understand… You have to have the respect for each other in that department.”
Richardson plans on doing just that with his new organization, and as he begins to work with Brunette, McKenzie and Hendrickson, Richardson believes his fresh set of eyes and ideas will only help accomplish the overall goals.
Like all of those who were already a part of the organization last season, Richardson is also eager to prove the Preds have much more to give. That work will begin soon enough, and Richardson knows he and the rest of the staff have plenty to do before training camp begins in September.
But that’s the challenge a coach loves - finding a way to get better, day by day, game by game, shift by shift. Richardson is no different, and he’s embracing what lies ahead in Tennessee this fall.
“I'm looking forward to coming in and being a part of that [determination to prove people wrong],” Richardson said. “I want to prove to the League and everybody watching that this team is a lot better team than they were last year.”
