This time last year, Mike Richards was the NHL’s pariah.

At the dawn of 2016, signed by the Capitals, he became Brian MacLellan’s low-risk experiment.

And today he is an inspiration, a story to tell your kids: Everybody falls down sometimes; the trick is to get back up.

By the Numbers

Visualization by Hockeyviz

About this visualization: This series of charts made by Micah McCurdy of hockeyviz.com shows various metrics for the player over the course of the 2015-16 season. A short description of each chart:

1. Most common teammates during 5v5
2. Ice time per game, split up by game state
3. 5v5 adjusted shot attempts by the team (black) and opponents (red)
4. 5v5 adjusted shooting percentage by the team (black) and opponents (red)
5. Individual scoring events by the player

Peters’s Take

Only 47.1 percent of goals (+8 / -9) during Mike Richards’ 5-on-5 shifts belonged to the Capitals. That is disappointing and mostly the fault of the Caps’ lowly 4.8 on-ice shooting percentage.

And that is the only downer I can summon about Mike Richards’ 2015-16 season. Everything else, as far as I’m concerned, was a goddamn triumph. Even if he didn’t see success according to the scoreboard, Richards’ comeback season was inspiring. It’s a memory I’ll treasure.

Early in the new year, the Capitals signed Richards, formerly of the Kings (and formerly formerly of the Flyers) to a reclamation contract. Richards’ history with drug abuse loomed over the deal, and then it evaporated completely.

Ten days later, Richards was taking shifts. He stabilized a wobbly bottom line with his decision-making, going as far as to pull Tom Wilson up from the realm of disaster (46% possession) into the realm of somewhat mitigated disaster (48%). After the deadline, paired with Daniel Winnik, the Caps had an exceptionally strong bottom line.

But he just couldn’t score. Even by the standards of Richards’ last few seasons, five years after he dropped out of the 20-plus goal club, Richard’s paltry 2 goals in 39 games (with 4.3 percent individual shooting) was disappointing.

It was just finishing though; Richards generated chances on pace with other (non-Kuznetsov) centers, but got burned on turning those chances into goals.

If the Caps front office imagined Richards as a potential riser, a guy who could step into the scoring lines and give them some offensive bite, then this was signing was a miss.

But in every other possible way, I’m so happy about Mike Richards I could throw up. And only a small amount of that joy is based on fancy stats. Bigger to me is the idea that giving second chances is both a moral good and a good idea.

Almost one year ago, Richards was toxic, thrown to the curb by his former employer. Today he’s an unrestricted free agent who has proved his mettle, resilience, and character.

And he did it in a Washington uniform. Whatever happens next for Mike Richards, I’ll always grateful for that.

Ric on RMNB

• Check out all the bliss from the day the Caps signed Richards: the rumors and the actual news.
• It wasn’t hard to start loving Richards. His was a redemption story, and he was keenly aware: “I took coming to the rink and playing hockey for a living for granted.”
• And then we saw him standing there.

• And it was good. Even if he didn’t score, like, at all, Richards had the whole team waxing philosophical.
• In his debut interview, Richards was grilled by temporary reporter Alex Ovechkin, who had his first career fight against his new teammate.
• This was perhaps the hit of the playoffs.

• An important public service: convincing Tom Wilson not to take a retaliation penalty.
• Making a fan for life right here.

• Let’s wrap it up with this: Mike Richards celebrating his first goal as a reinstated professional player, the kind of goal you love to see Capitals named Mike score.

Your Turn

What’s next for Mike Richards? Is he due for a raise? And where?

Read more: Japers’ Rink