The NHL on TNT is an American presentation of
National Hockey League (NHL) games produced by
TNT Sports (formerly known as Turner and later Warner Bros. Discovery Sports), and televised on
TNT and streamed on
Max in the United States.
In 2021, Turner Sports reached a seven-year contract[1] to serve as one of the two
rightsholders of the NHL in the United States, alongside
ESPN/
ABC, with both replacing
NBC Sports. TNT will hold rights "up to 72" nationally televised regular-season games per season,[2] the annual
NHL Winter Classic game on
New Year's Day, half of the
Stanley Cup playoffs (airing on TNT and
TBS, with the latter billed as the Stanley Cup Playoffs on TBS), and hold rights to the
Stanley Cup Finals in odd-numbered years.[3] The contract also includes an option for
Max to carry and/or simulcast games.
When the NHL's media rights were up for renewal in 2011, Turner Sports was reported to have been among the bidders (with Sports Business Journal suggesting that Turner would want to pick it up for
TruTV to expand its sports output alongside the
NCAA men's basketball tournament), alongside past NHL rightsholders
Fox Sports and ESPN.[5] The NHL ultimately decided to renew its rights with
NBC Sports under a 10-year deal, taking advantage of the acquisition of its parent company
NBC Universal by
Comcast—the existing
cable rightsholder via
Versus.[6]
National contract (2021–present)
To increase the value of its U.S. media rights after the expiration of its 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.[7] After announcing on March 10, 2021, that
ESPN would hold the first half of the new media rights, on April 27, the NHL announced that a seven-year agreement was reached for Turner Sports to hold the second half of its new media rights beginning in the
2021–22 season;[8][9][10][11][12]
TNT holds rights to up to 72 regular season games per season.[10][13] In practice these games have primarily been Wednesday-night doubleheaders (thus serving as the successor to NBCSN's Wednesday Night Hockey), with occasional games also scheduled on weekends (mostly on Sunday afternoons during the second half of the season).[13] Other WBD networks, such as
TruTV, are used as overflow in the event that a game on TNT runs long.[8][10][14][15]
TNT holds rights to the
Winter Classic annually, as well as the Thanksgiving Showdown (since 2022), and
Heritage Classic in select years, it formerly held the
NHL Stadium Series from 2021 and 2022.
TNT and TBS share in coverage of the Stanley Cup playoffs with ESPN,
ESPN2, and ABC, holding rights to "half" of the games in the first two rounds, and one conference final per season (ESPN/ABC will have the first choice of conference finals).
TNT will hold rights to the
Stanley Cup Finals in odd-numbered years beginning 2023, alternating with
ABC.
Beginning in the
2023–24 NHL season,
Max will begin to offer
simulcasts of TNT games as part of its Bleacher Report Sports add-on.[16] The contract also includes an option for games that are exclusive to the service.[17]
Bleacher Report will distribute highlights on digital platforms. The site launched 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.[21][22]
The contract was reported to be valued at $225 million per season.[23]
On May 26, 2021, Turner announced the hiring of
Wayne Gretzky as its lead studio analyst, and that NBC's top commentary team of
Kenny Albert and
Eddie Olczyk moved to Turner as its lead commentary team.[24][25] Retired basketball player and current TNT Inside the NBA panelist
Charles Barkley, who is a friend of Gretzky, was instrumental in convincing Gretzky to join Turner.[26] 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 be joining Turner.[27] On June 9, Morgan reported that NBC's
Anson Carter would be doing the same.[28] On June 28, Marchand reported that
Islandersplay-by-play manBrendan Burke was in talks to join Turner as their #2 play-by-play man.[29] On August 31, it was reported that
Liam McHugh would join TNT from NBC.[30]
On September 14, 2021, TNT announced its slate of on-air staff for its inaugural season.[31] Jones, a studio analyst at NBC, would join Albert and Olczyk on the lead broadcast team as the lead ice-level reporter.[31][22] Burke[32] and Pang were named as the secondary broadcast team. McHugh and Carter were named to the studio team,[31][28] along with former
Coyoteshead coachRick Tocchet[31][33] and veteran
Paul Bissonnette, who all joined Gretzky in studio.[31]Hockey Night in Canada’s
Jennifer Botterill, NHL Network's Jackie Redmond, and Tarik El-Bashir also appear as contributors.[31][22] TNT later added former referee
Don Koharski as a rules analyst, and former
BlackhawkJamal Mayers as an extra contributor.
On November 23, TNT added retired
Rangers goaltender
Henrik Lundqvist to its studio panel, starting on the next day's broadcast.[34] On November 30, TNT welcomed former referee
Stéphane Auger to their team, as another rules analyst, joining Koharski. He made his debut during the
Penguins-
Oilers game the next night.[35] On January 13, 2022, TNT added Nabil Karim,[36] formerly of
ESPN, to contribute as secondary studio host and reporter for both the NHL[37] and the NBA. Former NBC and current Kraken play-by-play announcer
John Forslund was picked up by TNT as a fill-in announcer, whenever Albert or Burke are on assignment. Forslund first filled in for Albert for the Avalanche-Golden Knights game on February 16, as Albert was working the
Olympic women's hockey gold medal game for
NBC about an hour after puck drop.[38][39][40][41] Sharks color commentator
Bret Hedican also joined in a fill-in role, joining Forslund in Vancouver on March 9. TNT added several announcers to their roster for the playoffs including
Randy Hahn,
Dave Goucher,
Jim Jackson,
Butch Goring,
Drew Remenda,
Shane Hnidy and
Jody Shelley.
Due to conflicts with TNT's first two NHL doubleheaders, AEW: Dynamite was pre-empted to Saturday on the weeks of October 13 and 20. From October 27 through December 15, 2021, TNT aired only a single, 10 p.m.
ET game with Dynamite as a lead-in (which concurrently began broadcasting live on both TNT's East and West feeds).[44][45] TNT then began airing doubleheaders on January 5, 2022, when Dynamite moved to TBS.[13][46][44]
In the 2022–23 season, TNT announced a 62-game regular season schedule, normally airing on Wednesdays throughout the regular season and four Sundays during March and April. In addition to gaining exclusive rights to the
2023 Stanley Cup Finals and the
2023 NHL Winter Classic, TNT will gain the rights to the annual Thanksgiving Showdown on Friday, November 25, featuring a doubleheader between the
Pittsburgh Penguinsand thePhiladelphia Flyers, and the
St. Louis Blues at the
Tampa Bay Lightning. With the
NBA opting not to play games on
Election Day, TNT decided to schedule a rare Tuesday night doubleheader on November 8, with the
Edmonton Oilers at the Tampa Bay Lightning, followed by the
Nashville Predators at the
Seattle Kraken. Like their playoff coverage in 2022, TNT brought in regional announcers for select games. Those include current Kings and former NBC play-by-play man
Alex Faust and Lightning play-by-play man
Dave Randorf, previously of
TSN and
Sportsnet. Unlike the previous season, select TNT broadcasts would air on a non-exclusive basis, and are blacked out in the local markets of the participating teams in favor of local broadcasters.[47] On January 23, Tocchet left TNT to be the new head coach of the
Vancouver Canucks, replacing recently-fired
Bruce Boudreau.[48][49] He subsequently returned to TNT as a guest studio analyst after the Canucks missed the playoffs.[50][51][52] On May 11, 2023, Jones was named the President of Hockey Operations for the
Philadelphia Flyers after the
2023 Stanley Cup playoffs concludes.[53][54][55][56][57][58][59]
During the first round of the
2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, TNT only carried weekend games due to its commitments with the
NBA playoffs, with some weeknight games airing on TBS alongside ESPN.[60] To maximize viewership, the 2023 Stanley Cup Finals were simulcast on TBS and/or TruTV (notwithstanding commitments to MLB on TBS Tuesday Night and AEW Dynamite).[61]
On August 29, 2023, TNT hired
Brian Boucher away from ESPN to replace Keith Jones on the lead team, thus reuniting with former NBC partners Kenny Albert and Eddie Olczyk, a position that was confirmed on September 21 with entire TNT crew returning and
Henrik Lundqvist being added to the crew full-time.[62][63][64]
TNT is scheduled to air a 62-game schedule for the 2023–24 season, 48 of those games are on Wednesdays as Doubleheaders, and 12 of those games are on Sunday afternoons branded as Hockey Day In America (which was previously used by NBC with its weekend games) along with the
2024 NHL Winter Classic and the Thanksgiving Showdown.[65] The
2023 Heritage Classic will air on TBS.[66]
On November 7, TNT announced that
Chris Chelios would serve as a guest analyst for that night's doubleheader.[67][68]
As part of TNT's seven-year NHL national contract, select
Stanley Cup playoff games air on TBS.[79] In 2023, TBS will air the
Heritage Classic, its first regular season game.[66]
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–
2003 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, which merged it with
FSN South to form
SportSouth.
With the exception of Root Sports Northwest, all of WBD's regional sports networks would be dissolved at the end of the
2023 Major League Baseball season.[82][83] The Golden Knights signed a multi-year agreement with the
E. W. Scripps Company's Scripps Sports division to start airing games on Scripps's Las Vegas broadcast station
KMCC and syndicate the telecasts to other stations across the team's broadcast territory.[84] Meanwhile, AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh, the television home of the Penguins, was purchased by the
Fenway Sports Group, which also owns the
Boston Bruins' home network,
NESN.[85] The network dropped the AT&T branding and became known as simply
SportsNet Pittsburgh (not to be confused with Canada's
Sportsnet networks) effective October 2.[86] In January 2024, the Mariners purchased WBD's remaining stake on Root Sports Northwest.[87]
Production
A Turner Sports executive stated that TNT's goal for its coverage was to provide information on-air that would appeal to both mainstream viewers and "diehard fans", including leveraging the NHL's new player and puck tracking system for on-air features and graphics, and
high frame rate cameras. The network also implemented an on-ice graphic for the power play clock, similar to the on-court shot clock graphic used in TNT's NBA coverage.[43] TNT's studio coverage originates from Turner's headquarters in Atlanta, with a set featuring
projection mapping effects.[88]