NHL on TNT

The NHL on TNT is a presentation of the National Hockey League (NHL), games produced by Turner Sports, and televised on TNT and TBS in the United States.

In 2021, Turner Sports reached a seven-year contract to serve as one of the two rightsholders of the NHL in the United States, alongside ESPN and both replacing NBCUniversal. Turner Sports will hold rights to "up to" 72 nationally-televised regular-season games per season, the annual NHL Winter Classic game on New Year's Day, half of the Stanley Cup playoffs (with games airing on TBS and TNT), and the rights to every other Stanley Cup Finals beginning in 2023. The contract also includes an option for WarnerMedia's HBO Max to carry games.

Turner Sports has previously aired hockey, as the regional home for the Atlanta Flames and Atlanta Thrashers, and as the cable home for Olympic ice hockey from 1992–1998 for CBS. The co-owned AT&T SportsNet regional sports networks also hold local rights to the Pittsburgh Penguins, Seattle Kraken, and Vegas Golden Knights. However, Turner Sports had never had a national contract with the NHL.

1970s
For a short period in the 1970s, WTCG, the predecessor to TBS, was the television home of the Atlanta Flames. All of the Flames' radio and television broadcasts were simulcasts. The Flames' games were also broadcast on the radio by WSB (AM). Jiggs McDonald was the main play-by-play announcer with Skip Caray substituting from 1976–80. Color commentators included Andy Still (1972-73), Bob Neal (1973–74), Ed Thilenius (1974–75; home and televised games only), Bernie Geoffrion (1975–79), and Bobby Harper (1979–80; home games only). Pete Van Wieren also did play-by-play for the Flames. The Flames left Atlanta for Calgary prior to the 1980-81 NHL season.

1990s and 2000s
From 1992–1998, TNT served as the American cable television partner for CBS in its coverage of the Winter Olympic Games. Jiggs McDonald handled the play-by-play for ice hockey at the 1992 and 1994 Olympics with Bill Clement on color commentary in 1992 and Joe Micheletti in 1994. In 1998, Mike "Doc" Emrick provided the play-by-play commentary alongside color commentators Peter McNab, Joe Micheletti, and Digit Murphy.

Turner launched the regional Turner South network in 1999, which carried games of the Atlanta Thrashers, which were owned at that time by Turner parent Time Warner. Matt McConnell was the primary television play-by-play announcer for the Thrashers from 1999–03 with JP Dellacamera taking over for the rest of the way in Atlanta. Darren Eliot was the television color commentator throughout the Thrashers' entire existence before their 2011 departure to Winnipeg as the Jets. Time Warner sold the Thrashers in 2003, and sold Turner South to Fox Cable Networks in 2006.

2010s and 2020s
Following AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner in 2018, AT&T SportsNet, a regional sports network system acquired in 2015 as a part of DirecTV, was moved into the WarnerMedia News & Sports division in March 2019, alongside Time Warner's existing national sports unit Turner Sports. AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh and AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain currently serve as the regional outlets for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Vegas Golden Knights, respectively. The Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball franchise acquired a controlling 60% stake of Root Sports Northwest in April 2013 and retained the Root Sports name after 2017, though AT&T holds the other 40% interest in that network and serves as operator. The Seattle Kraken will have their games broadcast on Root Sports Northwest upon their debut in 2021–22.

National contract (2021–present)
In order to increase the value of its U.S. media rights after the expiration of their ten-year deal with NBC Sports, the NHL pursued having multiple media partners for its next round of media rights deals, including possible deals with streaming services. After announcing on March 10, 2021 that ESPN will serve as its primary rightsholder, on April 27 Turner Sports and the NHL announced that they had agreed to a seven-year agreement to hold the second half of its new media rights beginning in the 2021–22 season;


 * Turner Sports will hold rights to up to 72 exclusive national games per-season, which can air on either TNT or TBS.
 * Turner Sports will hold rights to the NHL Winter Classic annually.
 * Turner Sports will share in coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs with ESPN and ABC, holding rights to "half" of the games in the first two rounds, and one conference final per-season.
 * Turner Sports will hold rights to the Stanley Cup Finals in odd-numbered years beginning 2023.
 * There is an option for HBO Max to hold over-the-top streaming rights, including simulcasts of Turner's NHL broadcasts, and the option for games exclusive to the service. WarnerMedia executives indicated following the contract announcement that they had only just begun to study how the streaming service might be involved, and that there were not plans to air games on HBO Max within the 2021 calendar year.
 * There are plans for a studio program, likely to be modeled after TNT's Inside the NBA.
 * Bleacher Report will be able to distribute highlights on digital platforms. The site will launch Open Ice, a new content brand focusing on NHL-related content. Online personality and streamer Andrew "Nasher" Telfer was hired as a contributor for the brand.

The deal was reported to be valued at $225 million per-season.

On May 5, 2021, Richard Dietsch of The Athletic reported that Kenny Albert and Eddie Olczyk would serve as the lead broadcast team for Turner Sports, representing their roles on NBC the previous season after Mike Emrick's retirement. On May 25, the New York Post 's Andrew Marchand reported that Wayne Gretzky will be Turner's NHL lead studio analyst. Turner confirmed the hiring of Albert, Olczyk, and Gretzky in these roles the following day;     Craig Morgan, an Arizona-based reporter on the Arizona Coyotes and correspondent for the NHL Network, reported that Darren Pang and Keith Jones, color commentators for the St. Louis Blues and Philadelphia Flyers, respectively, would also be joining Turner On June 9, Morgan reported that Anson Carter would be joining Turner as well. On June 28, Marchand reported that Brendan Burke was in talks to join Turner as a play-by-play announcer. On August 31, it was reported that Liam McHugh would join Turner from NBC Sports.

On September 14, 2021, TNT announced its slate of on-air staff for its inaugural season. Keith Jones will serve as "Inside-the-Glass" reporter joining Albert and Olczyk in addition to Gretzky serving as the lead studio analyst. Furthermore, Brendan Burke and Darren Pang will serve as the secondary team.

TNT's live coverage of the NHL launched on September 30, 2021 with a preseason doubleheader between the Boston Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers and later, the Vegas Golden Knights and Los Angeles Kings. TNT will then air its first regular season games on October 13, 2021, with a doubleheader between the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals, and the Chicago Blackhawks and Colorado Avalanche. For the 2021–22 season, TNT will air 50 games, primarily on Wednesday nights (with 15 doubleheaders), seven weeks of games on Sundays in March and April 2022, and rights to the Winter Classic, Stadium Series, and Heritage Classic outdoor games.

In anticipation of TNT broadcasting NHL games on Wednesday nights, All Elite Wrestling's weekly program Dynamite will move from TNT to TBS on January 5, 2022. Until then, TNT will only air west coast games in a 10:00 p.m. ET window on Wednesday nights from October 27 to December 29, 2021 (serving as a lead-out for Dynamite), with doubleheaders resuming January 5, 2022.

Studio personalities

 * Liam McHugh: lead studio host (2021–present)
 * Wayne Gretzky: lead studio analyst (2021–present)
 * Anson Carter: studio analyst (2021–present)
 * Rick Tocchet: studio analyst (2021–present)
 * Paul Bissonnette: studio analyst (2021–present)

Play-by-play

 * Kenny Albert: lead play-by-play (2021–present)
 * Brendan Burke: #2 play-by-play (2021–present)

Color commentators

 * Eddie Olczyk: lead color commentator (2021–present)
 * Darren Pang: #2 color commentator (2021–present)
 * Keith Jones: "Inside-the-Glass" reporter (2021–present)

Contributors

 * Jennifer Botterill: contributor (2021–present)
 * Tarik El-Bashir: contributor (2021–present)
 * Jackie Redmond: contributor (2021–present)

Rules analysts

 * Don Koharski (2021–present)