Calgary Flames at Red Wings 12-20-15

Brad Richards' 10 goals and 18 assists were the fewest of his 15-year NHL career.

(AP File Photo)

DETROIT - It's been five years since Brad Richards had time to ponder his future at this point of the NHL playoffs.

Richards' season extended into the Stanley Cup Finals the past two years and he hadn't failed to reach the second round of the playoffs since Dallas missed the postseason for the third straight year in 2010-11.

But with the Detroit Red Wings getting bounced in the first round by Tampa Bay this year, that's given Richards the opportunity to assess what he's going to do next. And Richards doesn't know the answer.

Does he try and return for a 16th NHL season or is it time to call it quits?

"Going to go get away and relax for a bit," Richards said when asked about his future after the Red Wings cleaned out their lockers last week. "Three teams in three years, a lot of hockey, so I think mentally I think I need to just go recharge the batteries.

"It's an honor to play for this organization. I think it's one of the Original Six great traditions. But I'm talking to you today and I've been fortunate the last two years to play 'til June and you get spoiled. Watching playoff games now and there's nothing like that time of year.

"As far as playing for the Wings and wearing the jersey, all that stuff's been an honor. But obviously the season didn't go the way I wanted it to or the team wanted it to."

Richards didn't produce the way the Red Wings were hoping after they signed him as a free agent last summer.

They gave Richards a one-year deal for $3 million after he helped the Rangers reach the Stanley Cup Finals in 2014 before capturing his second championship with the Blackhawks last summer.

In 68 games, he had 10 goals and 18 assists - the fewest he's recorded in either category since breaking into the NHL with Tampa Bay in 2000-01 - while bouncing around between lines all season.

In the five-game playoff loss to the Lightning, he had one goal.

Seeing former Tampa Bay teammate Vincent Lecavalier announce his retirement last month after 17 seasons made it even more apparent to Richards that the end of his own career could be close, too.

"Guys that I grew up and started my career with are retiring," said Richards, who turned 36 this week. "It's probably going to creep into my mind here in the next month a little bit too in what I want to do. I'm not there yet where I want to say I'm retiring. I need to get away and kind of see mentally how I feel and where I'm at.

"It's a young man's game now and it's hard to start a family and all that stuff and put in the time and effort it takes to stay in shape against some of these young guys. You do have to make sure you're 100 percent all in mentally. The offseasons so big at this age.

"That's going to go into a lot of decision-making."

The Red Wings were Richards' third team in three years after he spent the first 10 seasons of his career playing for Tampa Bay and Dallas.

With the Red Wings unlikely to bring him back, starting over in another city is obviously going to play into Richards' decision as to what he does next fall.

Richards said playing in the NHL has become a year-round job as far as off-season preparation goes and that's another question he has to ask himself: Does he want to continue doing that with his 40th birthday not far away?

As for his first season with the Red Wings, Richards said a lot of things went wrong as Detroit wasn't able to extend its playoff streak to 25 seasons until the final game of the season before being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons.

Outside of rookies Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou, he didn't think many Red Wings lived up to or exceeded expectations and that was part of the problem.

The Red Wings had a new coach in Jeff Blashill, Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist failed to score like they had in the past, captain Henrik Zetterberg struggled during the second half, the defensive corps was a season-long problem and goaltender Jimmy Howard went almost three months without winning a game.

"I don't think we ever fired on all cylinders, the team, in my opinion," said Richards, who scored at least 20 goals 10 times before joining the Red Wings. "There's 100 reasons for that and people will dissect all that. Maybe young guys like Larks and Double A that have never played in the league, they've exceeded or done better than I thought.

"But I think everybody else thought there was more there and just couldn't find it. For whatever reason, never got on that roll. Tampa found a way to win four games in the third period and we didn't. That's why we're here."

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