TSN Hockey

TSN began airing Toronto Maple Leafs games regionally, presented by Molson as Molson Canadian Leafs Hockey, in the 1998–99 season, when they first lost the national contract. The package was originally for 30 games, but reduced to 17 once TSN re-acquired the national rights in 2002. Ten of those games were ones that TSN acquired from the NHL to air nationally. The other seven, TSN acquired from the Maple Leafs as regional games. However, TSN eventually came to an agreement with the other five Canadian clubs to air these games nationally.[4] Originally Joe Bowen and Harry Neale called the regional Leafs telecasts in the booth, with Glenn Healy serving as ice-level reporter from 2005 to 2006–07 season, when their deal expired, and from the 2007–08 season through 2013–14, every Maple Leafs game on TSN was broadcast as a national NHL on TSN game.

Beginning in the 2014–15 season, owing to Bell Canada's ownership stake in the Leafs' owner, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment and the loss of TSN's national cable rights, TSN began to air 26 regional games per season, split with Sportsnet Ontario, and aired by TSN4.[3][5]

On January 29, 2014, the Ottawa Senators announced a new, 12-year regional broadcasting deal with Bell Media that took effect in the 2014–15 season; TSN5 began to air regional Ottawa Senators games beginning in the 2014–15 season. The deal also included an extension of Bell's radio rights with CFGO, and French-language regional television rights for Réseau des sports.[6][7][8]

Upon their return to the city, TSN began broadcasting regional Winnipeg Jets games beginning in 2011, under a 10-year media rights deal with Bell Media that also included radio rights for co-owned CFRW.[9] Winnipeg Jets games not televised nationally by the NHL's national broadcast partners are broadcast by TSN3, and are available in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and parts of Northwestern Ontario.[10]

Regional Jets games were previously carried by TSN Jets, a part-time multiplex channel of TSN exclusive to the Jets' market. The TSN Jets channel was a subscription-based premium service, costing $9.95 CAD per-month during the NHL season, but was available on a free preview basis for the start of the inaugural season. Despite the fee, representatives from both MTS and Shaw Cable stated that "thousands" of their customers had subscribed to the Jets channel.[11] On August 18, 2014, TSN officially confirmed that the TSN Jets feed would be discontinued, and that regional Jets games would be moved to the new TSN3 channel for the 2014–15 season.[10]

TSN has occasionally held regional, English-language rights to the Canadiens. Its most recent deal ran from 2010 through 2014. They were broadcast on a part-time TSN feed available to digital television services in the Canadiens home market, with Dave Randorf on play-by-play, alongside Dave Reid. Bell Media declined to renew its English-language rights through the 2013–14 season, although TSN Radio station CKGM still owns English radio rights, and Réseau des sports replaced its national French-language rights with regional rights for the 2014–15 season.[3][12] English-language television rights to the Canadiens were acquired by Sportsnet East under a three-year contract.[13]

Prior to the 2017–18 season, TSN announced that they had reacquired the English-language rights to broadcast Canadiens games, replacing Sportsnet, and now airing on TSN2.[14] John Bartlett, who handled play-by-play for Canadiens games on Sportsnet East, also moved to TSN, but returned to Sportsnet the following season.[15] Soon after, long-time TSN talent Bryan Mudryk took over play-by-play duties.[16]

TSN owned the national cable rights to the NHL in Canada from 1987 through 1998, after which what was then called CTV Sportsnet purchased the national cable rights to NHL games. Prior to this, TSN's NHL coverage was sparse as they only acquired games a la carte. From 1987–88 to 1997–98, they usually showed games twice per week through the regular season and in the first round of the playoffs they provided extensive coverage of series not involving Canadian-based teams. TSN was the first ever holder of cable rights to the NHL in Canada, although the task of acquiring these rights were complicated by contradicting statements by CBC that it did own the cable rights to the NHL, along with the involvement of competing beer company Molson in Canadian NHL rights at the time (TSN was founded by its competitor, Labatt). With the help of a Molson employee who was a friend of TSN's founder Gordon Craig, a deal was reached between TSN, Molson, and the NHL.[17]

TSN's most recent period as national rightsholder lasted from 2002 to 2014. During this period, TSN usually televised three or four games per week during the regular season, with its flagship broadcast, Wednesday Night Hockey, airing on Wednesdays. In some cases, TSN took the American feed of the game (i.e. ESPN/ESPN2) if it didn't involve a Canadian team. During the playoffs, TSN had third, fifth, seventh, and eighth choices of first-round series, third and fourth in the second round, and second in the Conference Finals. These changes allowed TSN to broadcast playoff games involving Canadian teams,[18] such as at the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs, as TSN televised the Calgary Flames' first-round series against the Chicago Blackhawks, the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs when the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Washington Capitals in seven games, and the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs when the Vancouver Canucks lost in four straight games to the San Jose Sharks.

In January 2015, after it was announced that the NHL-organized World Cup of Hockey would be revived in 2016, Bell Media attempted to make a bid of nearly $32 million for its Canadian broadcast rights during a blind auction. However, broadcast rights to the tournament were instead awarded to Rogers; although Bell Media representatives refused to elaborate, the company believed that Rogers' national rights to the NHL had contained provisions allowing the company to match outside offers for such events.[19]

The 1986 Canadian coverage of the NHL All-Star Game was to be provided by CTV. However, CTV had a prior commitment to carry a U.S. miniseries.[20] As a result, TSN took over coverage of the game in Hartford.

The studio hosts were Jim Van Horne (1985–1994), John Wells (1989–1995), and Gord Miller (1995–1998), with Bob McKenzie providing studio analysis. Lead play-by-play broadcasters were Wells (1985–86), Jim Hughson (1987–1994), and Paul Romanuk (1994–1998). Color commentators were Meeker and Bobby Orr (1985–86), Roger Neilson (1987–1989), and Gary Green (1987–1998). Howie Meeker was also often part of the game-night crew, providing highlights and analysis with the telestrator.

When TSN re-acquired the national cable rights to the NHL in 2002, Pierre McGuire was hired as its lead color commentator.[25] After the 2011 NHL Draft, it was announced McGuire had taken a full-time position as a reporter for NBC Sports, effective as of the 2011–12 season. Pierre still makes occasional appearances as an analyst during TSN's hockey coverage and on TSN Radio.[26][27][28]

Other broadcasters used by TSN include play-by-play announcers Dan Shulman (1994–1998), Pierre Houde (1996–97), Vic Rauter (2002–2003), Dave Randorf (2002–2014) and Chris Cuthbert (2005–2020); and colour commentators Ryan Walter (1993–1998), Randy Gregg (1994–1995), Glenn Healy (2003–08), and Ray Ferraro (2008–2022).

After the NHL announced that it had accepted Rogers' bid over TSN's to take over national cable rights, news sources such as the Toronto Star[29] and the National Post[30] speculated on where TSN's hockey personalities (such as James Duthie, Bob McKenzie, Darren Dreger, Chris Cuthbert, and Gord Miller) would end up. Initially, Rogers was only able to lure Dave Randorf and Mike Johnson among TSN's major personalities. However, Mike Johnson re-joined TSN in September 2017 after being terminated by Rogers Media on August 10, 2016, and would later make appearances on American television for NHL Network and NBC Sports.[31] Despite getting offers from Rogers, Duthie instead signed a long-term contract with TSN.[32] In addition, not only did McKenzie, Dreger, Cuthbert, and Miller also decide to stay with TSN, but all four started to appear on a regular basis south of the border on NBC's hockey coverage (McKenzie, Dreger, and Cuthbert officially joined NBC, while Miller, who did occasional play-by-play work for NBC since 2011, saw an increased role).[33][34] Cuthbert moved to Sportsnet in 2020.

After ESPN (a part-owner of TSN) reacquired the American NHL national rights in 2021, the network added Ray Ferraro as one of its lead analysts (alongside former NBC talent Brian Boucher). Ferraro continued to work on TSN's Maple Leafs broadcasts while appearing concurrently on ESPN until 2022.[35][36][37]