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Buzz: ESPN Looking To Return To NHL

by Adam Rotter on May 3rd, 2010 at 12:12 pm

Update:1:45PM: More from this weekends ratings at SBJ

OP:According to Sports Business Journal, with the NHL’s contract with Versus and NBC expiring after next season, ESPN is looking to return NHL coverage back to its army of networks.

For more on ratings, click here.

…I missed this last week, but nevertheless its potentially big news for the NHL. Versus coverage has gotten considerably better but they can’t compete with ESPN. I like Bill Patrick and hope he would come aboard to ESPN, but they can leave Brian Engblom at Versus.

It stinks for Versus if they lose out, they took on the NHL when no one else wanted it, when it was still OLN, and built their network around it. They will need to dig deep and beat an ESPN pitch that will be hard to turn down. It could mean the return of Gary Thorne to hockey and that is more than enough for me to get behind this.
  • toaster

    whenever this is discussed, i always wonder why the nhl put itself in a position where its tv contracts are exclusive to 1 cable network. the mlb is in espn and tbs, the nba is on espn and tnt – why does hockey have to be on only 1 network?

    i don’t know anything about how these agreements are created, but it seems like it would be good if they were on versus and espn. i guess versus wouldn’t like that, but viewers would.

  • MataGarden

    I love this !
    I hope to see Gary Thorne call playoff games . I CAN’T STAND Emrick.

    NHL is on 2 networks Verses and NBC.

    ESPN will put the Cup Finals on ABC so there is no need for a cable network or a local network. cause ESPN has both.

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