Richards has been, and will continue to be, the center of criticism around the way the Flyers' season ended. He is terrible with the media and is apparently not a vocal leader. Sometimes I think of him as "Captain Mumbles". A lot of Flyers fans are dragging him through the mud, questioning his leadership and his heart in general. This is more a response to the fact that he has a C on his jersey rather than his play in general.
So will the Flyers trade their captain this offseason? It appears the option is at least on the table for the first time.
First of all, I don't buy complaints that Richards doesn't have any heart. The guy always plays hard and generally DOES lead by example. Still, he did not have a good season overall, and he looked to be playing at half speed down the stretch in a way that generally indicates poor conditioning or an injury (and I'm not talking about a wrist injury that affects his faceoff prowess). To be fair though, his production wasn't too bad, and he spent much of the season with the Flyers' 3rd line wingers (Nodl, JVR through his slump, Zherdev as he passed through the lineup).
Given that this criticism is revolving around his captaincy, forget his on-ice play for a moment and just focus on his performance in his role as a captain. Holmgren and others have defended him saying he could improve on certain captaincy skills, and that he is "a quiet kid." Okay, sounds plausible. The question that raises with me however, is that the Flyers already knew he was a quiet kid when they named him captain---this can't be a surprise.
Put differently, assuming Richards' issues with the media and vocal leadership is a real problem, is management to blame for making Richards the captain in the first place and putting him a role for which he was not suited? Even if you take for granted that Richards was destined to be the captain of the Flyers someday, timing is always relevant.
In some ways I was surprised the Flyers were so eager to name another young captain after the Flyers named Lindros the youngest captain in the league, which didn't exactly turn out for management. Young captains can occasionally work (think Jon Toews), but isn't that more the exception than the rule?
The Flyers made Richards captain before the 2008-09 season, when he was coming off a breakout year offensively and the Flyers advanced to the Conference Finals in the playoffs. He was 23 at the time, young by any standard for a NHL captain. The Flyers locker room at the time wasn't exactly full of captain candidates, with the other possible candidates being Gagne, Knuble and Timonen. Reportedly Gagne turned down the captaincy years before, Knuble was in the last year of a contract, and Timonen had only been with the team for 1 season. (In hindsight, Timonen's level-headed veteran personality probably would've been a good fit.)
It's been said that the Flyers can't take away the C from Richards, and that he is either the captain of the team or will have to be traded away. Captain in hockey may be like a QB in football--they get too much credit when things go right and too much blame when things go poorly. Ultimately I think it would be a shame if the Flyers feel like they have to trade away a hard working 2-way center in his prime because he wasn't a good fit at captain at this point in his career, and management will have to look back and question the decision they made 3 years ago.
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