News does not wait for live TV, and many newsbreakers keep doing that part of their job even while on live TV. We’ve seen that countless times with ESPN’s Adam Schefter in particular, where he’ll be texting or even take a call in the middle of a TV hit. And sometimes that will lead to him reporting breaking news live on air.
But it’s more unusual to see a guest who works as an insider for another network in another country be the one breaking news on air. And it’s especially unusual to see that at the very start of an interview on what to expect ahead of a league trade deadline. That’s what happened with the NHL on TNT interview of long-time NHL insider Elliotte Friedman of Canadian network Sportsnet Wednesday, though. There, he said Calgary Flames’ defenseman Noah Hanifin was going to the Vegas Golden Knights:
The @NHL_On_TNT had quite the start to their @FriedgeHNIC interview. "For more on all things trade-deadline related, let's go to the insider himself, Elliotte Friedman joins us now." "Hold on, I just need to check, I think it's Hanifin to Vegas." "Wow, live on-air?" "Yes." pic.twitter.com/qhsWOdq4ds
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 7, 2024
That discussion starts with host Liam McHugh saying “For more on all things trade-deadline related, let’s go to the insider himself, Elliotte Friedman joins us now.” Friedman says “Hold on, I just need to check, I think it’s Hanifin to Vegas.” McHugh says “Wow!” and Paul Bissonnette says “Wow, live on air?”, and Friedman says “Yes, I think he’s going to Vegas.” Bissonnette says “Oh my god,” and McHugh then says “All right, that’s a good way to start this. Okay.” Bissonnette says “Cross that off my list,” McHugh says “Yeah, you don’t have to ask that one,” Bissonnette says “I’ve got a backup question here,” and McHugh says to Friedman “All right, if anything else breaks, interrupt us, please.”
The panel then interviewed Friedman for about seven minutes on trades already made and other ones that might happen. They ended the interview by checking if he had anything further to break; he didn’t, but had to go make some calls. Bissonnette then weighed in on how much time Friedman spends on his phone.
They ended Friedman’s interview with “There’s nothing else on your phone, right?” Friedman said no, but he had to make calls. Then Paul Bissonnette said “Whatever you’re making, it’s not enough, buddy. 17 hours a day. They’re going to have to donate your brain to science.” pic.twitter.com/ZmAcMx13ho
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 7, 2024
It should be noted that there is some discussion around if Friedman did “break” this trade overall. Ryan Leslie, who Friedman works with at Sportsnet, tweeted about this three minutes before Friedman went on air at TNT (but did caveat it with “I believe”), and Friedman retweeted him.
I believe Noah Hanifin is headed to Vegas.
— Ryan Leslie (@ryanlesliemedia) March 6, 2024
And there had been chatter on this before, including from Friedman himself discussing it as a possibility:
Not sure where all of this is going to go, but hearing Vegas has entered the Noah Hanifin conversation.
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) March 6, 2024
And even Friedman’s eventual “I think he’s going to Vegas” is a bit caveated. But this certainly comes pretty close to breaking trade news on air. And Friedman said this on air on TNT 10 minutes before his primary NHL insider competition, TSN’s Darren Dreger (following Bob McKenzie’s retirement), tweeted about it. But Dreger was more definitive in saying that it was going to happen. Here’s that tweet:
VGK and Calgary Flames completing a trade to send Hanifin to Vegas. Contract extension also in the works.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) March 6, 2024
In any case, this certainly fits in with some past discussions about breaking news on air, and about insiders checking phones on air. And it was interesting to see this play out this way.
[Awful Announcing on Twitter/X]
