The Seattle Kraken have their TV broadcast team for their inaugural season.
On Monday, seven-year NHL veteran JT Brown announced his retirement from the league at age 30, following it up with the announcement that he’d be joining the Kraken as their first-ever TV game analyst. He’ll work with John Forslund, who the Kraken announced as their first play-by-play broadcaster in January.
I would like to formally announce my retirement from professional hockey.
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Ok, now I would like to formally announce that I am coming out of retirement and joining the @SeattleKraken as TV Color Analyst. Let’s go Kraken! pic.twitter.com/VcHCYY2eGm— JT Brown (@JTBrown23) June 21, 2021
Brown also tweeted a longer retirement announcement.
— JT Brown (@JTBrown23) June 21, 2021
Last August, the Kraken hired their first-ever broadcaster: Everett Fitzhugh, who was eventually announced as the team’s radio play by play voice.
I have no real insight into how well the Forslund/Brown pairing will work out for the Kraken, but the public largely seems optimistic.
Brown, an experienced Twitch streamer, talked to The Athletic about his appointment and the learning curve he’ll experience.
“I think there are a lot of things I have done throughout my career – Twitch included – that will help me in this role and career path,” Brown explained. “It is going to be a learning curve for myself and having someone like John teach and help me through the process is going to make it easier. Multitasking while talking to fans while playing games is another way of putting yourself out there and putting yourself in those situations. … It helps that the hockey side, I have that down pretty good! It is the other side that will take time to learn and a lot of the work I will have to put in before the season, during the season and that is on the other side. I talk about John being one of the best at what he does. To have him as a mentor in this stage, it helps.
Now that they’ve got broadcasters, all the Kraken need are a full roster of players. The expansion draft takes place a month from today, and will be followed up by the 2021 NHL Draft, which will see the Kraken pick second overall. A TV outlet for either draft hasn’t been announced yet, though the Seattle Times reported last month that the expansion draft would likely be on either an ESPN or Turner platform (the NHL’s two new TV partners for this fall).
