NHL on ESPN

The NHL on ESPN is a forthcoming television presentation of National Hockey League (NHL) games on ESPN properties, including ABC, ESPN+, and Hulu, set to return to The Walt Disney Company in 2021.

ESPN first televised National Hockey League (NHL) games in the season, initially by sub-contracting rights from individual franchises. After the NHL shifted to only having one exclusive rightsholder, ESPN acquired the NHL's national television rights in 1985 to replace USA Network (which had previously aired NHL games in parallel with ESPN). ESPN lost the rights to SportsChannel America in 1988.

ESPN regained the NHL's U.S. television rights from 1992 through the 1999–2000 season, with the coverage branded under the blanket title ESPN National Hockey Night. ESPN also sub-licensed a package of network television broadcasts to ABC (sister via ESPN parent The Walt Disney Company) under the NHL on ABC branding until 1994, when the NHL sold a broadcast television package to Fox Sports. In 1999, ESPN renewed its contract through the 2004–05 NHL season, with ABC returning as broadcast television rightsholder to replace Fox.

The 2004–05 season was cancelled due to a lockout of the NHL Players Association. ESPN had reached a two-year agreement to serve as cable rightsholder in a reduced capacity beginning in the 2005–06 season (with a smaller package of regular season games and playoff coverage primarily on ESPN2, and the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals), alongside new broadcast rightsholder NBC. After the lockout, ESPN opted out of the contract. They were instead acquired by Comcast, with telecasts moving to Versus; it held the cable rights (which were later unified with NBC's rights after Comcast's purchase of NBC Universal) through the 2020–21 season.

In March 2021, the NHL announced that it would return to ESPN networks under a seven-year contract beginning in the 2021–22 season. ESPN/ABC and ESPN+ will both hold rights to packages of exclusive regular season games, and share in coverage of the playoffs with TNT —including alternating rights to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Early years: 1979–1982 and 1985–1988
ESPN initially covered the NHL during the, and  seasons by making deals with individual teams. This included eleven Hartford Whalers home broadcasts in 1980–81 and 25 the following year. Branded as ESPN Hockey, Sam Rosen, Barry Landers and Joe Boyle were employed as play-by-play announcers. Pete Stemkowski was the lead color commentator. ESPN meanwhile, used "Hot Lunch Jam" by Irene Cara for its theme music. During the opening round of the 1982 playoffs, ESPN broadcast Game 4 of the series between the New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins and Game 2 of the series between Minnesota North Stars-Chicago Black Hawks, with Sam Rosen and Pete Stemkowski on the call. The season prior, Rosen and Stemkowski called Games 3 and 4 of the playoff series between the St. Louis Blues and Pittsburgh Penguins.

During this time, USA also broadcast National Hockey League games. In order to prevent overexposure, the NHL decided to grant only one network exclusive rights. In April 1982, USA outbid ESPN for the NHL's American national television cable package ($8 million for two years). In 1984, the NHL asked ESPN for a bid, but then gave USA the right to match it, which it did.

After the 1984–85 season, the NHL Board of Governors chose to have USA Network and ESPN submit sealed bids. ESPN won by bidding nearly $25 million for three years, about twice as much as USA had been paying. The contract called for ESPN to air up to 33 regular season games each season as well as the NHL All-Star Game and the Stanley Cup playoffs. The network chose Dan Kelly and Sam Rosen to be the network's first play-by-play announcers, Mickey Redmond and Brad Park were selected to be the analysts, and Tom Mees and Jim Kelly were chosen to serve as studio hosts. ESPN designated Sundays as Hockey Night in America, but also aired select midweek telecasts. ESPN aired its first game, an opening-night matchup between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers, on October 10, 1985.

At the end of the season, ESPN lost the NHL television rights to SportsChannel America, who paid $51 million ($17 million per year) over three years,  more than double what ESPN had paid ($24 million) for the previous three years. SportsChannel America managed to get a fourth NHL season for just $5 million.

SportsChannel America was only available in a few major markets (notably absent though were Detroit, Pittsburgh and St. Louis )  and reached only a 1/3 of the households that ESPN did at the time. In the first year of the deal, SportsChannel America was available in only 7 million homes, compared to ESPN's reach of 50 million. By the 1991–92 season, ESPN was available in 60.5 million homes, whereas SportsChannel America was available in only 25 million.

Second return to ESPN and ABC’s involvement: 1992–1999
When the SportsChannel deal ended in 1992, the league returned to ESPN for another contract that would pay US$80 million over five years.

Until the 2001–02 NHL season, weekly regular season games were broadcast on Sundays (between NFL and baseball seasons), Wednesdays, and Fridays, and were titled Sunday/Wednesday/Friday Night Hockey. Prior to 1999, these telecasts were non-exclusive, meaning they were blacked out in the regions of the competing teams, and an alternate game was shown in these affected areas. During the Stanley Cup playoffs, ESPN and ESPN2 provided almost nightly coverage, often carrying games on both channels concurrently. Games in the first two rounds were non-exclusive, while telecasts in the Conference Finals and Finals  were exclusive (except in 1993 and 1994). Beginning in the 1993–94 season, up to five games per week were also shown on ESPN2, branded as NHL Fire on Ice.

Sister broadcast network ABC also aired NHL games during the first two seasons of the contract, in the league's first network television broadcasts since NBC's previous contract in the 1970's. In the first season, this included selected playoff games, and later expanded to include a package of regular season games in the second season. These telecasts were produced by ESPN, and were officially considered to be time-buys on ABC by ESPN Inc. This arrangement ended in the 1994–95 season, when the NHL began a new contract with Fox as its broadcast television partner.

Final years, and including ABC full-time: 1999–2004
In 1998, ESPN renewed its contract through 2004 for $600 million, beginning in the 1999–2000 season. Under the new contract, ESPN was permitted two exclusive telecasts per team per season, while ABC would also return as broadcast television rightsholder to replace Fox.

ESPN’s terms of the deal included: up to 200 games a year split between ESPN and ESPN2, the All-Star Skills Challenge, majority of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals, while ABC's terms included: rights to the NHL All-Star Game, 4 to 5 weeks of regular season action, with three games a week, 6 weekends of Stanley Cup Playoff action, and the rest of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Move to NBC and OLN: 2005–2021
Before the 2004–05 lockout, the NHL had reached two separate deals with NBC (who would replace ABC as the NHL's American national broadcast television partner) and ESPN. ESPN offered the NHL $60 million for about 40 games (only fifteen of which would be during the regular season), all on ESPN2, with presumably, only some midweek playoff games, the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals and the All-Star Game airing on ESPN.

NBC's deal involved a revenue sharing agreement with the NHL as opposed to a traditional rights fee, and included rights to six regular season windows, seven postseason broadcasts and games 3–7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. ESPN had a two-year deal that they opted out of after the lockout, leaving the NHL without a cable partner. In August 2005, Comcast (who owns the Philadelphia Flyers) paid $70 million a year for three years to put games (54 or more games each season under the agreement, generally on Monday and Tuesday nights) on OLN, later known as Versus. Due to the abbreviated off-season, the 2005–06 schedule did not offer OLN exclusivity, which they received in 2006–07. Versus would also cover the playoffs and exclusively air Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

NBC continued to serve as the NHL's long-term U.S. broadcast partner until the 2020–21 season; broadcast and cable rights were unified in the 2011-12 season following the purchase of NBC by Comcast and the merger of Versus into NBC Sports as NBC Sports Network.

World Cup of Hockey: 2016
Long after losing their broadcasting rights to the NHL, ESPN served as the U.S. broadcaster of the NHL-backed 2016 World Cup of Hockey, as NBC declined due to programming conflicts.

For the tournament, ESPN named Steve Levy and Barry Melrose as the lead broadcast team, while adding Kevin Weekes from NHL Network, Leah Hextall from Sportsnet, NHL Hall of Famers Chris Chelios and Brett Hull to their roster. ESPN also named NHL Hall of Famers Chris Chelios and Brett Hull as their studio analyst. Additionally, ESPN brought back current St. Louis Blues color commentator Darren Pang, who was the network’s secondary color commentator from 1999–2004, for their coverage, as an “Inside the Glass” reporter for select games. John Saunders, who had hosted ESPN and ABC’s NHL coverage from 1987–88 and again from 1992–2004, was tapped to lead the studio coverage, however, due to his unexpected death a month after ESPN announced their complete roster , Cohn, who was originally going to do features for ESPN, was tapped to replace Saunders.

ESPN+ involvement: 2018–present
After its 2018 launch, ESPN's subscription streaming service ESPN+ added an NHL studio program, a free daily regular season game courtesy of NHL.tv (which is operated by Disney subsidiary BAMTech), and a Stanley Cup Playoffs documentary series (replacing one produced as part of Showtime's All Access franchise). As part of the NHL.tv deal, ESPN+ started a nightly hockey show, In the Crease, hosted by Linda Cohn and Barry Melrose.

Third return to ESPN and ABC: 2021–present
On March 10, 2021, ESPN and the NHL announced that the network had agreed to a seven-year agreement to hold half of its new media rights beginning in the 2021–22 season;


 * ESPN will hold rights to 25 exclusive national games per season, which can air on either ESPN or ABC. Games on ABC stream on ESPN+. For the 2021-22 season, ABC will air 10 games, consisting of the Thanksgiving Showdown and a Saturday "game of the week" beginning in late-February. ESPN will air 18 games, with the majority of them airing in the later months of the season.
 * ESPN+ will hold rights to 75 exclusive national games per season, which will also be simulcast on Hulu, and will not be carried by any linear television outlets. For the 2021-22 season, the majority of these games will air on Tuesday and Friday nights, and then shift to Tuesday and Thursday nights beginning in calendar year 2022.
 * ESPN will hold exclusive rights to opening night games, the All-Star Game, and other "special events".
 * The NHL's digital out-of-market package NHL.tv will be discontinued in the United States, with all out-of-market games moving to ESPN+ (similarly to ESPN's agreement for Major League Soccer's out-of-market package)
 * ESPN and ABC will share in coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs, holding rights to "half" of the games in the first two rounds, and one conference final per-season. ESPN and ABC will have the first choice of which conference final series to air.
 * ABC will exclusively air the Stanley Cup Finals in even-numbered years. ESPN will have the ability to air simulcast coverage with alternate feeds on its other channels and platforms.
 * ESPN will produce a weekly studio program dedicated to the NHL, and hold various highlights and international rights.

On May 10, 2021, Andrew Marchand of the New York Post reported that Ray Ferraro and Brian Boucher had signed with ESPN to become ESPN's top hockey analysts. On May 17, Marchand announced that ESPN hired Leah Hextall to be a regular play-by-play announcer on NHL broadcasts, making her the first woman in league history to hold that role, having worked the 2016 World Cup of Hockey for ESPN.

On June 9, 2021, ESPN announced that current New Jersey Devils defenseman P.K. Subban would be a studio analyst for the remainder of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs, making his debut on SportsCenter that day. The same day, Craig Morgan, Arizona-based reporter on the Arizona Coyotes and NHL Network correspondent, reported that ESPN had added Ryan Callahan and A.J. Mleczko to their analyst roster, and that Kevin Weekes, who also worked for ESPN during the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, was in talks to return to ESPN as a reporter. Marchand later reported that Weekes had signed a deal with ESPN, and that Bob Wischusen, who at the time, called play-by-play for ESPN's college football and basketball broadcasts, would also work NHL broadcasts. On June 24, ESPN officially announced that six-time Stanley Cup Champion Mark Messier had signed a multi-year deal to join ESPN in a studio analyst role;  on June 28 Marchand reported that Chris Chelios would also join ESPN as a studio analyst. The same day, The Athletic reported that current Hockey Night in Canada reporter Cassie Campbell-Pascall would also join ESPN.

ESPN formally confirmed its commentator teams on June 29, 2021. Sean McDonough will be ESPN's lead play-by-play announcer; Steve Levy will lead the studio coverage and contribute to occasional play-by-play commentary. Joining Hextall and Wischusen as play-by-play commentators is John Buccigross while Messier, Chelios, Boucher, Ferraro, Campbell-Pascall, Weekes, Callahan, Mleczko, Melrose, Rick DiPietro, and Hilary Knight would contribute analysis. Reporters include: Blake Bolden, Emily Kaplan, and Greg Wyshynski. Cohn will continue her duties hosting In the Crease. On August 4, 2021, ESPN announced that they added John Tortorella as their studio analyst. On September 16, Arda Ocal would also announce that he would host game broadcasts.

ESPN also confirmed that Spanish language coverage of the NHL would air on ESPN Deportes and ESPN Latin America. Kenneth Garay, and Eitán Benezra would be the main play-by-play commentators, while Carlos Rossell and Antonio Valle contribute analysis and color commentary.

ESPN's inaugural broadcasts will be an opening night doubleheader, with the Pittsburgh Penguins at the defending Stanley Cup champions Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Seattle Kraken at the Vegas Golden Knights in the Kraken's first regular-season game in franchise history.