|
Richards ponders his future |
|
|
|
|
|
Pavel Datsyuk isn’t the only member of the Detroit Red Wings pondering a move away from the NHL.
Brad Richards is another weighing his future.
“I’m going to go get away and relax for a bit,” Richards said. “Three teams in three years, a lot of hockey (with trips to the Stanley Cup final in 2014 and 2015), so I think mentally I think I need to just go recharge the batteries.”
Signed by the Wings to a one-year contract as an unrestricted free agent, Richards, 35, also recognizes that there isn’t much time to make the decision whether to call it quits or get down to the business of preparing for the 2016-17 NHL season.
“The game is great,” Richards said. “If you just put your gear on and go out and perform in front of 20,000 people every night, there's nothing better in the world. That's an honor that we don't take lightly.”
It’s the time and work effort required to prepare for that honor which tends to drive older players into retirement. The love for the game never fades but the passion for the pain and suffering needed to maintain that love affair gets more difficult to deal with every passing season.
“It starts May 15,” Richards said. “You pretty much have to start training if you want to keep up. It's pretty much a year-round thing and that's the part that if you don't do it right and do it 100 percent, then it doesn't work.”
Watching Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier, two of his peers and long-time teammates with the Tampa Bay Lightning, opt to hang up their skates for good over the past two seasons certainly resonated with Richards.
“Guys that I grew up and started my career with are retiring,” Richards said. “It's probably going to creep into my mind here in the next month a little bit, too in what I want to do.
“I'm not there yet where I want to say I'm retiring. I need to get away and kind of see mentally how I feel and where I'm at. Mentally I think right now, just personally, three different teams in three years, starting a family and stuff like that, mentally I need to kind of get away and recharge and see where I'm at.
“It's a young man's game now and it's hard to start a family and all that stuff and put in the time and effort it takes to stay in shape against some of these young guys.
“As you get older, physically, I think you have to do other things to keep your body in the right form. You do have to make sure you're 100 percent all in mentally. The off-season's so big at this age. That's going to go into a lot of decision-making.”
The Joe No More
Talk about keeping it in the family.
When the Wings move into their new rink for the start of the 2017-18 NHL season, it will be known as Little Caesars Arena.
A 20-year naming rights agreement was announced Thursday between Olympia Entertainment, the entertainment branch of Ilitch Holdings Inc., which also own the Red Wings and Little Caesars, the pizza chain launched by Mike and Marian Ilitch in Detroit in 1959, some 23 years before they purchased the Red Wings from Bruce Norris.
“This sponsorship is another major investment by the Ilitch companies in Detroit, its great people and its comeback story,” said Christopher Ilitch, president and CEO of Ilitch Holdings, Inc. “It’s a proud day for Little Caesars, the Detroit Red Wings, our community, and for my parents Mike and Marian Ilitch. To have their first business as the namesake of this building in their beloved hometown is an amazing tribute to their careers and their love for the people here.
“They decided decades ago that they would do everything they could to contribute to Detroit’s resurgence. Beginning with the renovation of the historic Fox Theatre and their relocation of Little Caesars headquarters to Detroit, their vision was to create a bustling, live, work and play, sports and entertainment district. This is exactly what we're building here with The District Detroit and Little Caesars Arena.”
The agreement, averaging more than $6.25 million per year, paves the way for Little Caesars Arena branding on the roof of the arena, on the exterior, at entrances and at center ice, among other opportunities. In addition, Little Caesars will become the official Detroit Red Wings Web site and social media-presenting sponsor starting with the 2017-18 NHL season.
The agreement is estimated to be the largest investment in a naming sponsorship for a building whose sole professional sport is hockey.
The selling of naming rights to Detroit’s new rink leaves Madison Square Garden, home to the New York Rangers, as the only home to an NHL team that is not named after a corporate sponsor.
Follow me on Twitter @asktheduffer
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»