OTTAWA, ON – On Tuesday, May 28th at Lansdowne Park’s Horticulture Building, the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame is inducting five new members to our local sports shrine – Dr. Mark Aubry (Builder – Medical), Mike Bullard (Athlete – Hockey), James Duthie (Builder – Media), Lyndon Hooper (Athlete – Soccer) and Luke Richardson (Athlete – Hockey), while a pair of teams will be honoured for their milestone national championship victories – the 1974 Ottawa Sooners and 1999 Ottawa 67’s. Each Tuesday and Thursday until the event, the Sport Hall will post an article on an aspect of the event. Today’s article is on 2024 Inductee, Luke Richardson.

2024 SPORT HALL INDUCTEE – LUKE RICHARDSON:

Hard-working, gritty, reliable, leader – Luke Richardson was a coach’s dream. So it’s only fitting that he’s now become a coach himself.

For 21 seasons, Richardson was a rock-solid NHL defenceman. He competed in 1,417 games, which ranks him 36th all-time.

The Ottawa West Golden Knights product enjoyed two standout seasons with the Peterborough Petes in the Ontario Hockey League and was selected seventh overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1987 NHL Entry Draft.

Richardson broke into the NHL as an 18-year-old and spent four seasons with the Leafs, followed by six years with the Edmonton Oilers and five with the Philadelphia Flyers.

In 1994, he helped Canada to an IIHF world championship gold medal. In 2000, he helped power the Flyers to an Eastern Conference regular season title and an appearance in the conference final, before falling in seven games to the eventual Stanley Cup-champion New Jersey Devils.

Richardson went on to captain the Columbus Blue Jackets before dressing for the Tampa Bay Lightning and Toronto again. The stay-at-home blueliner then came back home to the Ottawa Senators. He snuck past the 200 career points mark in his second year with the Sens and concluded his run of over two decades in the league in 2008.

In 2010, Richardson and his wife Stephanie launched the “Do it For Daron” initiative following the tragic death of their 14-year-old daughter by suicide. The family has been instrumental in raising money and awareness to support youth mental health in Ottawa and beyond.

Richardson slid into an assistant coach’s role with the Senators upon his retirement as a player, and he also coached for the Ottawa Lady Sens junior women’s hockey club. He later took over as head coach of the Binghamton Senators, Ottawa’s American Hockey League affiliate at the time.

Richardson returned to the NHL as an assistant coach with the New York Islanders. He then served as an assistant for the Montreal Canadiens and reached the Stanley Cup final in 2021. Richardson recently completed the second season of his first NHL head coaching assignment with the Chicago Blackhawks.

“It’s the most natural thing, to get into coaching,” Richardson told the Ottawa Citizen‘s Wayne Scanlan upon his retirement.

“Every game in the league is a privilege,” he added, “although it’s easy to take it for granted. The older you get, the more you realize that.”

MAY 28 OTTAWA SPORT HALL OF FAME INDUCTION EVENING

Tickets for the Tuesday, May 28th Induction Ceremony are now sold out!

In the lead-up to the banquet, full-length features on each of the inductees and honoured teams will be posted on the Hall’s website at OttawaSportHall.ca and shared through the Ottawa Sports Pages.

Sponsorship opportunities are still available. See OttawaSportHall.ca/Sponsorship for more details.

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Contacts:

Dave Best
Chair, Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame
Chair@OttawaSportHall.ca

About the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame:

The Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization, which documents, curates and celebrates outstanding achievement in local sport heritage. The Sport Hall is overseen by a volunteer Board of Directors to maintain and preserve our rich sporting legacies. Each year, the Hall of Fame Board receives nominations from the public and selects new inductees to be honoured in the Hall.