Rangers Hire Brian Leetch, Brad Richards As Advisers
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A couple of former Rangers stars are returning to the team to serve as hockey operations advisers.
Rangers general manager Jeff Gorton announced that Brian Leetch and Brad Richards have been hired to assist with hockey-related decisions as well as off-ice player and prospect development. Leetch and Richards also will help on the ice in developing players with the Rangers' American Hockey League affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack.
Leetch, 49, played for the Rangers from 1987 to 2004. He was a two-time Norris Trophy winner as the NHL's best defenseman and became the first American-born player to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP when he helped the Blueshirts' win the Stanley Cup in 1994.
Leetch was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2008.
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Richards played for the Rangers from 2011-14 and was a member of the Blueshirts' 2013-14 team that reached the Stanley Cup Final. The center spent 15 seasons in the NHL, scoring 20 or more goals 10 times.
Richards, 37, led the Tampa Bay Lightning in scoring during their 2004 Stanley Cup-winning run and was voted playoff MVP. He also won a title in 2015 with Chicago.