The Nashville Predators have hired Luke Richardson to be an assistant coach on Andrew Brunette’s staff, replacing Todd Richards, who will not return to the organization.
According to the team, Richardson will focus primarily on the defense, with the Predators looking for a new voice and new set of eyes for the team’s back-end.
Richardson, 56, was coach of the Chicago Blackhawks from 2022-2024 and was fired in December. Before that, he was an assistant coach with the Montreal Canadiens, New York Islanders and Ottawa Senators.
Richardson will join Derek MacKenzie, Darby Hendrickson and Ben Vanderklok as the team’s assistant coaches. Between Richardson, MacKenzie, Hendrickson and Brunette, the coaching staff has over 3,500 games experience in the NHL.
Richards, 58, was hired as Predators assistant coach under then coach John Hynes in October 2020. He was coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets for five seasons (2011-2016), then became an assistant coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning before being hired by Nashville in 2020. Last year, Richards coached three games for the Predators while Brunette was away dealing with a family matter.
Alex Daugherty is the Predators beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Alex at jdaugherty@gannett.com. Follow Alex on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @alexdaugherty1. Also check out our Predators exclusive Instagram page @tennessean_preds.