NHL on ESPN Archives

ESPN hires Erik Johnson as NHL analyst

Stanley Cup champion and Team USA defenseman Erik Johnson will be an NHL game analyst for ESPN.

ESPN notched a 37% increase over last year.

"I'm going to miss working with all the great people there, but I wanted to spend more time with my young family."

Oshie is joining ESPN as an NHL analyst less than four months after retiring from a 16-year career with the Blues and Capitals.

We'd love to be a fly on the wall for the phone call that Ben is about to get from an ESPN executive.

TNT and ESPN will air a combined 16 additional national window NHL games this season.

"The 'Draft House' is the worst thing in the history of the world, and that might be an understatement."

This season saw some great ratings heights for the NHL, but more drops and lows overall.

TNT Sports is down 20%, while ESPN is down 31% versus last season.

"They don't know anything about real sports."

Some of the VR tech from animated altcasts is now being used for regular broadcast commentator analysis.

But American viewership doesn't tell the whole story...

"The lack of emotion that I see, I would be pissed off. I would be sitting there dejected, at a loss for words as to how we just laid an egg..."

"Looking forward to joining Steve, Mark, and PK in the ESPN studio."

"I'm a free agent on July 1 and can't wait to dig in on my next ventures."

Stanley Cup Playoffs viewership across ESPN, ESPN2, and TBS is averaging 842,000 viewers, down 18% versus this point last season.

The league's regular season audiences averaged 445,000 viewers across its national broadcast partners.

Both TNT's NBA broadcast and ESPN's NHL one saw dives into the value of championship rings.

"Audio engineers need to figure it out!"

John Buccigross and Kevin Weekes will call Game 2 on ESPN2.

"I mean, we just can't sacrifice a round where these big markets can watch on their regional sports network."

When will Ovechkin pass Wayne Gretzky?

"Scratch my back with a hacksaw!"

The USA-Canada 4 Nations championship game surpassed all expectations by drawing 9.3 million viewers Thursday night on ESPN.