By JOE REEDY AP Sports Writer
The Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes are one of four teams that will have its games produced and distributed by the NHL for the upcoming season.
The league announced Tuesday that the Columbus Blue Jackets, Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues will also have local broadcasts done by NHL Productions when the season begins in late September.
The NHL branching out into centralized production of local games is another part of the evolution and challenges faced by teams with the demise of regional sports networks. Seven franchises had agreements last season with Main Street Sports, including the aforementioned four teams. Main Street operated 15 regional channels under the FanDuel Sports Network brand and went out of business at the conclusion of this past season.
“I think we’ve been looking at this day for a long time. If something happened in the middle of last season, we would’ve been quickly able to mobilize and not miss a beat,” said Steve Mayer, the NHL’s president of events and content. “In some ways, this is a lot of time from the end of one season to the beginning of the next in terms of being able to do what we ultimately want to make it a great production.”
Major League Baseball started doing local broadcasts in 2023 and is doing 15 teams this season. The NBA expects to have a centralized streaming hub ready for the 2027-28 season.
“It’s a crazy time in the media space. I mean, there’s just no getting around it. Whether you’re talking about the distributions, partnerships, production, everything is evolving,” NHL chief media officer and senior EVP David Proper said. “When you have this kind of sea change as to what’s going on at one time while the industry itself is changing, it’s a lot to address in a relatively short offseason.”
The other three teams that had their games on FanDuel Sports Network have also found other homes. The Detroit Red Wings will have their games on Detroit SportsNet, which is run by team owners Ilitch Sports + Entertainment, while the Los Angeles Kings will be on Angels Broadcast TV, which used to be FanDuel Sports Network West.
The Nashville Predators reached an agreement with Scripps Sports at the end of last season.
The league said additional clubs may be added prior to the start of the season. The Anaheim Ducks and Dallas Stars are possibilities after the Victory+ streaming service missed rights payments.
Mayer said NHL Productions is looking to upgrade the quality of local broadcasts with more cameras and enhanced replay capabilities as well as graphics that would give the games the feel of a national network broadcast.
One thing that is expected to remain a constant is the local announcers that fans are used to hearing.
The NHL also announced on Tuesday it has hired Rob McGlarry as general manager of local media.