Teddy Richards went from stick boy in Wilkes-Barre to equipment manager at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan.
The Luzerne County native was one of several people with local ties who helped contribute to Team USA's hockey gold.
"Just a great success story from a really hardworking guy who started right here in Northeast Pa.,” said Brian Coe, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Senior Vice President of Business Operations.
A family affair
Richards began his career cleaning up locker rooms, running errands, filling up water bottles and folding towels for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, the American Hockey League (AHL) minor-league team for the Pittsburgh Penguins.
He worked alongside his brother, Josh Richards.
Teddy Richards, 42, was eventually promoted to head equipment manager for the local Penguins with Josh, 36, as his assistant. They both went on to work for National Hockey League (NHL) teams.
For the past 17 days, Teddy was as an equipment manager for the gold medal-winning U.S. Men’s Hockey team.
On Sunday, the USA’s Men's Olympic team followed the women's hockey team's lead and beat Canada 2-1 in overtime.
Forward Jack Hughes scored the winning goal. The equipment Hughes used — his stick, his skates, as well as equipment used by goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who had a record-breaking 41 saves — was likely arranged by Teddy or Chris “Frosty” Scoppetto, also an equipment manager for the U.S. Team, or a combination of both.
"I know, just talking to my brother, as excited as he is that they won gold, I know he is tired,” Josh Richards said. “There were some 18-hour work days while he was over in Milan."
"You prep everything so the players, when they walk on the ice, everything's ready how they like it and you have backups for them, whether it be sticks and skate steel, so they don't miss any time," Richards added. "Everything's there ready to go, so they can stay focused on the game itself.”
Teddy’s road to Milan
The Richards are proud Wilkes-Barre natives who graduated from GAR High School.
The Luzerne County Convention Center Authority bought the minor league Penguins in the late 1990s. The team played their first game, which was away, in October 1999. The first game played at the new arena in Wilkes-Barre Twp., now called Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza, was on Nov. 13 of that year.
The team needed a new bus driver, Josh said. The first two didn’t work out. The driver had to help the equipment managers unpack the bus.
Josh and Teddy’s dad, Tedd Richards, drove for Martz Bus.
"Him being someone from Wilkes-Barre, who you always help when there's stuff to be done, just start unpacking them," Josh said.
"And since then, they fell in love with him, and they made them the driver for all the games.”
Tedd became the official driver for the Penguins. He drove the players for two years. The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins beat the Hershey Bears in a conference final in 2001, which gave them a shot at the Calder Cup.
Tedd died a day later, Josh said.
"The original dates were set, and they [the league] actually pushed it back this way everybody on the team can go to the funeral," he said. "That’s how much they actually cared about my dad. That was special.”
An important position
Both Teddy and Josh continued working for the Penguins. Despite not growing up watching or playing the sport, hockey became their whole life.
"If you ask any of the players in the locker room, the equipment manager is probably, you know, after the head coach the most important person that they deal with," Coe said. "He or she is charged with making sure that everything that they put on their bodies or are using is in top-notch shape.”
Equipment managers help fit skates and sharpen blades. They order all the equipment.
Hockey players have quirks with their sticks, Coe said.
"Some people like a bigger blade or … a bigger curve. Others have different specifications that they want. They need to be fitted for all of their equipment appropriately,” he said.
Coe said equipment managers are some of the hardest working members of the team.
“They're making sure that during the game, anything that breaks or needs repaired or needs a tweak to it is taken care of. After the game, they have to do all the laundry,” he said.
Equipment managers are often at the rink two or three hours before the players get there and they're the last guys to leave, Coe said.
Teddy Richards guided all the equipment operations for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton team for many years, Coe said.
The Pittsburgh Penguins took notice. The National Hockey League team hired him as an assistant manager. He was there when the NHL Penguins won the Stanley Cup and brought the Stanley Cup to visit his hometown a decade ago.
Now Teddy is equipment manager for the Florida Panthers, who won the Stanley Cup the last two years.
"He's used to working with these bigger name players who happen to usually need extra work, and he's able to handle the pressure,” Josh Richards said.
What’s different as the equipment manager with the Olympic team versus the Panthers is that Richards had only a short time to learn all the players' needs.
"They basically had maybe a week or two before the Olympics really got underway to skate together, to get to know each other, and for all the staff, to get to know them as a full team," Coe said.
But with Teddy's connections he would have already been talking to different equipment managers and finding out the teams’ needs, he said.
“The equipment manager has to be on top of his game and get to know these guys quickly and use all the resources he has to give them the best shot to win,” Coe said.
But it was back In Wilkes-Barre that the brothers got to know Herb Brooks, the head coach of the 1980 gold medal-winning U.S. Olympic team at Lake Placid.
That was the last time USA hockey won gold, and Sunday was 46 years to the day since the ‘Miracle on Ice’ victory over the former Soviet Union.
The brothers also knew Craig Patrick, a former general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who was Brooks’ assistant coach in 1980.
"It's always kind of been my brother's dream. Obviously, you want to win a Stanley Cup, but part of him wanted to go to the Olympics. He wants to be a part of the USA and experience that … 25 some years later, whatever it was, he reached that,” Josh said.
Wilkes-Barre proud
Despite no longer living in the area, Josh Richards said he and his brother still love Wilkes-Barre.
"It's where our family's from," said Josh, who lives in Texas. "We wouldn't be who we are without that."
Coe described Teddy Richards as an extremely hard worker who is extremely knowledgeable about his position. He said Teddy never forgets his Wilkes-Barre roots — as when he brought the Stanley Cup to the city.
"He actually shared it with us for a day, brought it to our offices and … brought it down onto [Public Square] so our fans could take a look at it," he said. "So that was very generous of him at that time, too, and he's gone on to greater things since then.”
'Connections all over the place'
Coe said hockey is a small world.
"We've got connections all over the place. And I think it's those connections you make as you're coming up that really help you to get to that next level too," he said.
That's because Teddy Richards is not the only member of the gold medal Olympic team who also spent time with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
- Madison Nikkel was the Olympic team's video coach. He is the current video coach for the Pittsburgh Penguins. He spent three years with the Wilkes-Bare/Scranton Pens before moving up to the NHL.
- Chris Kelleher was the director of player personnel for the Olympic team. He played for the minor-league Penguins from 1999 to 2001 and again in 2004 to 2006. Kelleher was the first player to step on the ice for the Penguins, according to newspaper articles from the time. He’s currently the assistant general manager for the Minnesota Wild.
- Jake Guentzel, a forward, won gold on the Olympic team Sunday. He played for the AHL Penguins during the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 seasons before moving onto the NHL team.
- John Hynes was one of the Olympic teams’ assistant coaches. He began his pro-coaching career with the Penguins as an assistant coach in 2009 and then as head coach for five years before he was promoted to the NHL.
- Olympic team head coach Mike Sullivan coached the Penguins during the start of the 2015-16 season, and led the team to a 19-5 record. He then went back to coaching in the NHL and won two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
- Team USA’s General Manager Bill Guerin, who is the general manager for the Minnesota Wild, and Team USA’s assistant general manager Tom Fitzgerald, general manager for the New Jersey Devils, began their management careers with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins after they finished their playing careers with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
- Mike Buckley was Team USA’s goaltending coach. In 2013, Buckley was hired by the Pittsburgh Penguins to develop and mentor goalies in the organization. The Wilkes-Barre Penguins had a record-setting four consecutive AHL ALL-Star goaltenders under Buckley's coaching.
"We were thrilled to turn on the TV and see all those familiar faces pulling on the gold medals and just celebrating yesterday,” Coe said.
“It was a great feeling for not only us in the front office, but it should be for everybody in Northeast Pa. to see what an influence that this area and this team has had on all that success at the U.S. level."
