PSU Hockey Player Spotlight: Dylan Richard

Story posted November 12, 2015 in CommRadio, Sports by Dave Arroyo

Even with all of the young talent across the board for the Nittany Lions Hockey team, there are still many contributing upperclassmen. One of those contributors is junior forward Dylan Richard. For Richard, some of these guys have been his teammates for quite sometime now, helping to contribute to his level of comfort in this Penn State offense.

Born Feb. 5, 1993 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to Syl and Sue Richard, the junior is one of many players with past experience in a junior hockey league. Richard played in the Alberta Junior Hockey League from 2009 to 2013 on the Spruce Grove Saints. During that time, the forward was teammates with current Nittany Lions’ defenseman Mike Williamson and fellow forward David Glenn. Richard found success in the league winning several championships and being a consistent contributor throughout, with his best season coming in his last in the league where he notched 42 points with 22 goals, earning Division All-League Team honors and was an MVP finalist.
The following season brought the Edmonton native to Happy Valley where he continued to be a strong contributor as a freshman. Richard was tied for the team lead with 11 assists and was 16th among Big Ten Freshman with 15 points. Many of the assists came in the final six games where Richard had six assists in the last six to close out the year. Richard also scored and assisted in Penn State’s first Big Ten victory and scored gaming winning goals against Ohio State and Michigan.

As a sophomore, Richard added to his totals and had career highs with eight goals, 13 assists, and 21 points. Richard also continued to be a very clutch player as he was the scorer of the game-winning goal on three different occasions. However, his numbers were a bit hindered by missing the entire month of November due to injury. However, Richard began to be a leader both on and off the ice as he earned Academic All-Big Ten Team honors.

Richard has continued much of the same this season, but has seen much more of a scorer’s role thus far rather than the setup man, tallying four goals with no assists. Most recently against Niagara, the clutch forward scored a late third-period goal to force OT and salvage a tie for the team.

The junior does not take all of the credit for himself and recognizes that most of his success can be attributed to his defenseman finding him the puck.

“I try to get into spots that are open where they can find me,” he said. “I just have to try and get into that good spot to shoot.”

Richard getting into these open spots, rather than being the one setting others up has allowed for him to have four goals already early in the season. As the season goes on, expect the veteran to continue to adapt to those around him and change his role as it best fits the team. You can check out Dylan Richard and the Nittany Lions in action this weekend at Pegula Ice Arena, or listen live here on ComRadio.


David Arroyo is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email arroyodavid01@gmail.com.