Stéphane Richer (ice hockey defenceman)

Stéphane Jean-Gilles Richer (born April 28, 1966) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who is currently serving as sport director at Eisbären Berlin of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga.

Stéphane Richer
Stéphane Richer coaching the team of the Kassel Huskies
Born (1966-04-28) April 28, 1966 (age 58)
Hull, Quebec, Canada
Height 6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Weight 194 lb (88 kg; 13 st 12 lb)
Position Defence
Shot Left
Played for Tampa Bay Lightning
Boston Bruins
Florida Panthers
Adler Mannheim
Frankfurt Lions
NHL draft Undrafted
Playing career 1987–2004

Playing career

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Richer spent most of his professional career playing in the minors, but did play parts of three seasons in the NHL with the Tampa Bay Lightning (1992–93), Boston Bruins (1992–93), Florida Panthers (1993–94 and 1994–95). He played in 27 NHL games; his NHL totals include one goal, five assists, six points and 20 penalty minutes.[1]

Richer left North America in 1995 to play for Adler Mannheim in Germany. He won the German championship with the Adler squad in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001 and remained with the team until the 2001–02 season. Richer spent his final season as a professional hockey player with the Frankfurt Lions before retiring in 2003.

Coaching career

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Richer began his coaching career in 2003 as assistant coach of the Frankfurt Lions; he and new head coach Rich Chernomaz led the Lions to a fifth-place regular season finish and a surprise DEL championship in the 2003–04 DEL campaign, defeating the heavily favored Eisbären Berlin in the playoff finals. Richer left the Lions after the season and signed as assistant coach with Adler Mannheim. Midway through the 2004–05 season, he succeeded Helmut de Raaf as head coach. In 2005, Mannheim fired Richer and replaced him with American Greg Poss. Several weeks later, he succeeded Bernhard Engelbrecht as head coach of the Kassel Huskies. Richer guided the Huskies to promotion to the German top-tier Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) in 2008.[2]

On January 6, 2010, he signed a contract as general manager of the Hamburg Freezers, and on March 25, 2010, was named as the club's head coach as well.[3] In December 2010, Richer relinquished the Freezers coaching job to Canadian Benoît Laporte. In 2014, Richer was named DEL Manager of the Year.[4] He signed a contract extension with the Freezers that would keep him with the club until 2019.[5] However, in May 2016, the Freezers folded; Richer, the staff and the players became free agents.[6]

After the Freezers had folded, Richer served as scout for the Los Angeles Kings and worked as director of the youth program at German Oberliga side Crocodiles Hamburg.[7] On January 26, 2017, he was appointed assistant coach to Uwe Krupp for DEL team Eisbären Berlin[8] and promoted to sporting director in May 2017.[9]

Career statistics

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Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1983–84 Hull Olympiques QMJHL 70 8 38 46 42
1984–85 Hull Olympiques QMJHL 67 21 56 77 98 5 2 1 3 14
1985–86 Hull Olympiques QMJHL 71 14 52 66 166 15 1 7 8 17
1986–87 Hull Olympiques QMJHL 33 6 22 28 74 8 3 4 7 17
1987–88 Baltimore Skipjacks AHL 22 0 3 3 6
1987–88 Sherbrooke Canadiens AHL 41 4 7 11 46 5 1 0 1 10
1988–89 Sherbrooke Canadiens AHL 70 7 26 33 158 6 1 2 3 18
1989–90 Sherbrooke Canadiens AHL 60 10 12 22 85 12 4 9 13 16
1990–91 New Haven Nighthawks AHL 3 0 1 1 0
1990–91 Phoenix Roadrunners IHL 67 11 38 49 48 11 4 6 10 6
1991–92 Fredericton Canadiens AHL 80 17 47 64 74 7 0 5 5 18
1992–93 Atlanta Knights IHL 3 0 4 4 4
1992–93 Tampa Bay Lightning NHL 3 0 0 0 0
1992–93 Providence Bruins AHL 53 8 29 37 60
1992–93 Boston Bruins NHL 21 1 4 5 18 3 0 0 0 0
1993–94 Cincinnati Cyclones IHL 66 9 55 64 80 11 2 9 11 26
1993–94 Florida Panthers NHL 2 0 1 1 0
1994–95 Cincinnati Cyclones IHL 80 16 53 69 67 10 2 7 9 18
1994–95 Florida Panthers NHL 1 0 0 0 2
1995–96 Mannheim Eagles DEL 50 11 30 41 62
1996–97 Mannheim Eagles DEL 49 10 19 29 65
1997–98 Mannheim Eagles DEL 48 6 26 32 66
1998–99 Mannheim Eagles DEL 51 13 29 42 90
1999–00 Mannheim Eagles DEL 43 10 18 28 46 5 0 2 2 16
2000–01 Mannheim Eagles DEL 55 8 19 27 72 12 3 7 10 26
2001–02 Mannheim Eagles DEL 50 1 13 14 58 10 0 5 5 4
2002–03 Frankfurt Lions DEL 11 0 4 4 12
NHL totals 27 1 5 6 20 3 0 0 0 0

Awards and honours

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Award Year
AHL
Second All-Star Team 1992
IHL
Second All-Star Team 1994, 1995
DEL
Champion (Adler Mannheim) 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001
Manager of the Year 2014

References

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  1. ^ "Stephane Richer". NHL.com. Retrieved 2016-05-29.
  2. ^ Hamburg, Hamburger Abendblatt - (2010-01-06). "Freezers: Stéphane Richer neuer Sportdirektor". www.abendblatt.de (in German). Retrieved 2016-05-29.
  3. ^ Sport1.de. "Richer auch Freezers-Trainer". Sport1.de (in German). Retrieved 2016-05-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ "Offizielle Homepage der Hamburg Freezers". www.hamburg-freezers.de. Archived from the original on 2016-05-29. Retrieved 2016-05-29.
  5. ^ GmbH, Perform Media Deutschland (2015-09-29). "Richer bis 2019 bei den Freezers – Sport – Spox.com". Spox.com. Retrieved 2016-05-29.
  6. ^ "Former NHLer Schubert's last-ditch effort to save Hamburg Freezers fails, DEL team folds | The Hockey News". www.thehockeynews.com. Retrieved 2016-05-29.
  7. ^ "Stéphane Richer über das Aus in der DEL, Hamburg und die Huskies" (in German). 2016-10-29. Retrieved 2017-01-27.
  8. ^ Berlin, Eisbären. "Mit Stéphane Richer gegen Tabellenführer München | Eisbären Berlin". www.eisbaeren.de. Retrieved 2017-01-27.
  9. ^ Berlin, Eisbären. "Stéphane Richer wird Sportdirektor | Eisbären Berlin". www.eisbaeren.de. Retrieved 2017-05-05.
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