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In-Depth

Breakthrough: NHL Preview

As the NHL becomes the second major league with 32 teams, we spotlight 32 people, places and developments in hockey that will mark one of the biggest business seasons in sports history.

John Buccigross will host “The Point” on ESPN2.Kelly Backus/ESPN Images

1.

Disney and Turner take the ice

On June 7, 2004, the Tampa Bay Lightning closed out the Stanley Cup Final with a 2-1 win over the Calgary Flames in Game 7.

 

There were no posts from overjoyed Lightning fans on Instagram or TikTok. No viral memes to share on Twitter. No discussions about the Game 7 heroics of Tampa Bay goalie Nikolai Khabibulin on WhatsApp or Reddit. No championship merchandise to show off on Pinterest. No rides home from Amalie Arena on Uber or Lyft to grab a late dinner from DoorDash paid for with Venmo.

Seventeen years ago none of those technological advancements that now seem so common existed. (Some things remain the same: The Lightning are two-time defending Stanley Cup champions). That also marked the last NHL game — shown on ABC to a reported 6.29 million people — to air on the Disney family of networks, and it is into that world that the NHL will embark on new media deals with not one but two partners: the resumption of a relationship with Disney and the launch of another with Turner Sports.

It’s perhaps the biggest part of one of the most seismic business seasons one league has ever had. Never in recent memory has a major professional league introduced two new rights-paying TV partners, an expansion team and a new arena in the same season. But the presence of Disney and Turner, the Seattle Kraken and Long Island’s UBS Arena also come in a season that would be critical for another reason: This will be the NHL’s first full 82-game schedule since 2018-19 and will take place against the ongoing realities of the pandemic. If that weren’t enough, the league’s players will return to the Olympics for the first time since 2014, its three marquee stadium events and All-Star Game will take place for the first time in two years and its reigning champion will try to pull off the first three-peat in a major North American team sport since the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers won three straight from 1999-2000 through 2001-02.

Perhaps the broadest change for the NHL in this season of opportunity comes through its deals with Disney and Turner, which are separate seven-year, agreements that average up to $625 million annually, according to sources. They start at a time that digital and social media are more a part of the strategy than ever before, and that will heavily influence how both properties present the sport to the public.

“As someone who has been in the media business for quite a while, you can see the seismic shift that’s coming with digital,” said the NHL’s David Proper, executive vice president of international and media strategy. “We’re going to be at the forefront in terms of how that is going to develop as a result of these deals.”

For the last 16 years, NBC exclusively held the NHL’s domestic media rights. Before that, however, ESPN and ABC served as the U.S. home for the sport from 1992 to 2004 (viewers will be glad to know that the network’s iconic hockey theme music is returning). In its first season back, Disney will broadcast 103 exclusive regular-season games across ABC, ESPN, ESPN+ and Hulu, while this season will mark the first of four Stanley Cup Finals aired over the deal’s term. ESPN’s first game back will be, appropriately, in Tampa, where the Lightning open defense of their title against the Penguins. Meanwhile, Turner Sports, which has never had a deal with the NHL, boasts a 50-game regular-season slate starting Oct. 13. That will include the NHL’s three outdoor games: Winter Classic (Wild vs. Blues, Jan. 1), Stadium Series (Predators vs. Lightning, Feb. 22) and Heritage Classic (Maple Leafs vs. Sabres, March 13).

Turner is starting its first season as a national partner with the league.

“This really is what we hope will be a paradigm-shifting deal in how we acquire rights at The Walt Disney Company,” said Ilan Ben-Hanan, ESPN’s senior vice president of programming and acquisitions.

More than 1,000 out-of-market regular-season games will appear on ESPN+, as well as 75 contests on Hulu. Tying in that kind of digital content, as well as emphasizing social media to enhance and complement game coverage; exposing the NHL’s brand to new and younger fans; and leaning into heightened access to players and coaches are all appealing elements to both networks’ plans.

“We’re storytellers,” said Linda Cohn, host of the ESPN+ nightly hockey show “In The Crease.” “We’re going to create those emotional connections that the casual sports fan may not have with an NHL player, with an NHL team, with an NHL coach. It’s how you bring in new fans.”

That starts with access, both on and off the ice, and it is one of the key facets of the strategy for both Disney and Turner Sports. It’s being driven by league and player buy-in but also newer technologies and continued emphasis on social media platforms, that at least in ESPN’s case, were hardly existent during their last cycle of NHL rights.

“Access is something that we know that fans crave to get closer to the players and closer to the game,” said ESPN’s Mark Gross, senior vice president of production and remote events who will oversee the network’s coverage of the sport. “I don’t know if we knew that close to 20 years ago that that would be a selling point.”

What is a player’s lifestyle like in the offseason? How do some players dress for game days? What shoes do they wear away from the rink? It’s all a part of “cultural access,” said Craig Barry, executive vice president and chief content officer at Turner Sports.

“This all sounds so simple,” he added, “but then suddenly you have a touchpoint for casual fans who may have something in common with a player or it reinforces that they really like a certain player.”

Turner’s sports cultural and lifestyle brand Bleacher Report, and its newly launched hockey vertical B/R Open Ice, will be key in “exposing the players for the superstars they are,” according to Bennett Spector, B/R’s senior vice president of programming.

“We get to build a hockey brand for the next generation,” said Spector, citing the company’s seven-plus million self-identified hockey fans across its digital properties, including its website, app and social platforms. “They’re already getting a product that’s news and information, and now we get to unlock all the entertainment and storytelling that we do so well.”

Turner also plans to leverage the broader Bleacher Report portfolio — including the popular B/R Kicks and B/R Gaming, among other franchises — for distribution. For example, “Underrated” is a newer content series developed by Bleacher Report, which works with sports gaming publishers such as EA Sports. There are plans for select episodes of NHL players performing different skills in the game to get their ratings up. And while integrating real-time highlights will remain an ingredient for Bleacher Report, showcasing “everything that surrounds the game,” as Spector puts it, will be central to its NHL coverage.

ESPN likewise carries a massive social footprint that the league is eager to benefit from. “Not only on the linear side but on the social side, they have massive reach,” said Steve McArdle, NHL executive vice president of digital media and strategic planning, of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” brand, which has nearly 80 million followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. “Being integrated into that platform in new and different ways is exciting for us.”

For its NHL coverage plans, ESPN’s Gross said “speed, skills and strategy” are the three cornerstones to the company’s approach. It’s why ESPN will have a camera positioned in the Toronto-based replay room to begin the 2021-22 season, the first time an NHL broadcast partner will do so. ESPN hired Dave Jackson, a retired 25-year NHL referee, to break down the on-ice calls. Both Turner and Disney will continue to integrate an ice-level analyst between the teams’ benches, a measure first enacted by NBC Sports.

Though Gross couldn’t disclose specifics, he did say ESPN is “exploring more aggressive camera placements” for documenting goals and providing more comprehensive and detailed replay sequences. Meanwhile, he added that Disney will utilize microphones for players and coaches.

The NHL’s puck and player tracking system, which the league first tested at the 2019 All-Star Game in San Jose, will also be widely deployed at all 32 NHL venues beginning in 2021-22. Though a specific timeline wasn’t provided for when hockey fans could see the data woven into game broadcasts for the two U.S. partners, the NHL’s McArdle said “we hope to see it early in the season.”

There will be new programming too. “The Point,” a Thursday afternoon show on ESPN2, will debut on Oct. 12 and feature a rotating cast of hosts including John Buccigross and Arda Ocal. Cohn’s “In The Crease” will be the nightly hockey postgame show on ESPN+. Turner’s pregame show, hosted by Liam McHugh, will be called “Faceoff,” while its postgame show will be referred to as “NHL on TNT.”

Among Turner’s newly-hired analysts is Wayne Gretzky, and having the sport’s most famous player will lend unmistakable gravitas to this new era for the sport.

It’s just another sign that all involved are sure it will be a great one.

2. 

Liam McHugh, Host, "NHL on TNT"

Liam McHugh spent the past nine seasons as the studio face of NBC’s hockey coverage, hosting the network’s pregame and postgame shows for every Stanley Cup Final since 2012. His contract expired at the same time NBC’s deal with the NHL did, but he didn’t stay a free agent for long. In September, McHugh agreed to a deal with Turner that will see him reprise his role as the host of the studio show for the “NHL on TNT,” which will air primarily on Wednesday nights during the regular season.

 

NBC Sports

“I want the show to really embrace what Turner is all about,” said McHugh, 44. The fun, spontaneous studio environment that has marked the network’s highly successful “Inside the NBA” is the vibe McHugh is going for.

McHugh will again be surrounded by plenty of familiar faces. Wayne Gretzky, the greatest player in the sport’s history, makes his debut as a studio analyst; Anson Carter, a former NBC teammate, will be on set, along with fellow former players Paul Bissonnette and Rick Tocchet. McHugh wants the analysts to say what’s on their mind, but he’s aiming to slow the pace of conversations to focus more on storytelling and have his Turner Sports colleagues “personalize situations” from their playing careers.

“And if it gets messy, it’s live TV,” added McHugh. “That’s going to be the fun part.”

Still based on his native Long Island with his wife and three children, McHugh plans to make the trek to Atlanta two to three times per week for work. His veteran presence means he knows what to bring to a network unfamiliar with broadcasting the sport.

“I want the hardcore hockey audience to sit there and say, ‘I get something out of that show every night.’ Then, I want the casual fan at home who just likes sports and wants to see something entertaining say, ‘I can tune in to this show, and it’s interesting and entertaining to me as well,’” he said. “If we can get to that — and that’s probably asking a lot — but if we can get to that, I’ll feel like we’re successful in the first year.”

3.

Linda Cohn, Host, "In the Crease," ESPN+

When Linda Cohn moved from Bristol, Conn., to Los Angeles in August 2018, the longtime “SportsCenter” anchor attended a town hall meeting held by President Jimmy Pitaro. An ESPN staffer in L.A. asked, “Do you ever foresee the NHL coming back to ESPN?” to which Pitaro, according to Cohn, answered, “Oh, yes. Yes, I do. One of my ultimate missions is to bring the NHL back to ESPN.”

 

ESPN Images

Said Cohn, “I always had faith that it was going to happen.”

Now that it has, Cohn — long one of the ESPN’s most prominent supporters of hockey, both internally and externally — is ready to take on an elevated presence within the network’s broader coverage. On Oct. 12, she will be on-site in Vegas for ESPN’s second game of its opening night doubleheader, where she’ll be the intermission host when the Vegas Golden Knights face the Seattle Kraken in the latter’s NHL debut. Three days later, she’ll be positioned in between the benches in Anaheim when the Ducks host the Minnesota Wild on ESPN+, followed by intermission duties in Seattle on Oct. 23 for the Kraken’s home opener against the Vancouver Canucks. According to Cohn, ESPN brass have already given her the green light that’ll she’ll continue with on-site NHL assignments in the months ahead.

“It’s even bigger and better for me personally,” said Cohn. “I’m looking forward to these new challenges.”

As a senior at Long Island’s Newfield High School in 1977, Cohn played for the boys’ hockey team. She joined ESPN in July 1992 and occasionally hosted “NHL 2Night,” a recap show on ESPN2. The network lost NHL rights in 2005, but in 2018 Cohn started hosting “In The Crease,” a nightly hockey show on ESPN+. That will now be ESPN’s NHL “show of record,” said Cohn, one featuring analysis, player interviews, press conference look-ins and highlights of every game on any given night.

Two weeks ago Cohn also began hosting the network’s only hockey-specific podcast, also titled “In The Crease,” with ESPN hockey reporter Emily Kaplan. It’ll air twice a week during the NHL season.

“It almost feels like you’re starting over, getting those exciting butterflies again and wanting to kick butt,” Cohn said. “I’m grateful for that.”

4.

The birth of the Seattle Kraken

Six-time All-Star Mark Giordano gives fans of the expansion Kraken a familiar name to cheer for in the team’s debut season.getty images

Its merchandise is flying off shelves. Its tickets are the hottest thing in town outside a pumpkin spice latte. And the Seattle Kraken haven’t even been officially unleashed yet.

 

Yes, even by the standards of typical expansion excitement, the anticipation surrounding the NHL’s 32nd franchise is noteworthy and stretches from their new home city to the league’s headquarters in New York. The team was awarded an expansion slot in December 2018, and from then until its first regular-season game on Oct. 12 and the opening of $1 billion Climate Pledge Arena on Oct. 23, a persistent buzz has been felt across the sport: The Kraken are coming.

It’s all been building to the debut of the team and its massively renovated home, but if you’re wondering just what the franchise with the coolest new logo and the greenest building in sports has in store for the sellout crowds that will fill the 17,000-seat arena, sorry — they won’t say. Jonny Greco, senior vice president of entertainment experience and production, and Lamont Buford, vice president of entertainment experience and production, tip-toed around disclosing game presentation specifics for when the Kraken hit the ice for the home opener against the Vancouver Canucks. Or, in fact, what’s planned for the entire first season. According to Greco, though, that intrigue “leans into our mysterious brand where it’s like, ‘We can’t tell you because it’s on brand.’”

“You want secrets because we want you to show up at the first game and be like, ‘Oh, my God, the Kraken did this thing,’” he added. “We want to do that every game.”

What is known is that the Kraken’s game presentation at Climate Pledge Arena will be a “three-hour ultimate manifestation of the brand.” That’s the message CEO Tod Leiweke gave to Team SKEEP (Seattle Kraken Entertainment Experience and Production). Greco and Buford lead a 15-person group, composed of producers, editors, videographers, show callers, live broadcast-types and game presentation personnel, to help bring the team to life on game night.

There will be lots of music; newer in-arena technologies; 28,000 square feet of LED video screens within and around the arena, the largest such installation at any arena in the world; and appearances by and collaborations with famous Seattleites.

Greco said his team of “storytellers, smile-makers and experience-makers” wanted to ensure they were “as prepared as possible.” He and Buford attended pro sports games in the market to understand what’s unique to the Emerald City, met with Kraken co-owners such as Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and and picked the brains of celebrities who know Seattle, such as rapper Macklemore and Detlef Schrempf, a standout with the long defunct Seattle SuperSonics.

“We’re going to take the spirit of all of our creative ideas and then Kraken-ifying and Seattle-lizing them,” said Greco. “That’s how you become authentic.”

For example, instead of just playing full songs, there will be 250 snippets throughout any given game. Seattle hallmarks like Jimi Hendrix and grunge will be joined by rhythm and blues, funk, and even Finnish pop rock artists (because the team has a Finnish player in Joonas Donskoi). In-arena programming could feature local celebrities such as actors Lana Condor and Rainn Wilson or the rock band Foo Fighters.

“It has been really cool to see the local artists, current and from the past, who have been like, ‘Hey, let us know what you need. Let us know how we can help,’” Greco said.

It will all be as much a show as a game. “I want fans to leave tired,” said Buford. “When they leave, it’s like, ‘Gosh, that was an amazing game and an amazing experience. My kids loved it. They fell asleep during the middle of the second period because they were already so tired.’ It’s all of those things where you can wake up the next morning energized just like our players.”

5.

Tod Leiweke, President, Seattle Kraken

The man who helped lead the charge to bring hockey to the Emerald City on:

 

Jose Lopez Jr.

The influence of his brother Tim Leiweke, Oak View Group co-founder/CEO:

TL: Without his courage, his guile and also his partner (Tim’s daughter Francesca Bodie, president of business development, Oak View Group), none of this would have happened. Not only did the city get what might be one of the most beautiful arenas in the world out of it, they got an NHL team, thousands of jobs created, amazing economic activity and events that would have never otherwise come here. If you need heroes, look no farther than those two. That’s not just a brother or an uncle speaking, that’s an admirer.

Climate Pledge Arena:

TL: There’s something about it that feels like an older Premier League building where you’re in a residential neighborhood setting and all of a sudden, there’s an arena. It’s the only arena in a park, I think, in the world. We’re the only arena in the world that has a full-time horticulturalist to curate and take care of a living wall that will run one entire length of one side of the building. I’ve been involved in a number of projects. Sometimes those renderings are better than what appears. In this instance, the renderings could not have done justice to what appeared.

The Kraken’s ticketing landscape:

TL: There’s a membership club that has well north of 10,000 paid members, but we have an unpaid waitlist that’s now 65,000. While we didn’t get all the way to satisfying the demands of that initial list, we made a pretty big dent in it by creating 9,000 half-season plans and then the full seasons. We priced 300 tickets at under $20. Tickets in the NHL and in the NBA are not inexpensive these days, so we’ve tried to create points of affordability.

The organization’s commitment to sustainability:

TL: We didn’t go to Amazon, and say, “You should embrace the climate pledge.” It was something they embraced. They came to us and said, “We’d be interested, but you’ve got to prove to us that you can run a building without fossil fuels. Year 2 in operation, no single-use plastic. That’s real pioneering.

6.

UBS Arena unveiled

Courtesy of the New York Islanders

The last moment at Nassau Coliseum was much like the most famous moment the arena hosted in its nearly half-century as the home of the New York Islanders: A Game 6-winning overtime goal by a winger that sent a sellout crowd into delirium and reminded visitors why, for all its flaws, Nassau Coliseum could be one of the most special — and loudest — venues in the league.

 

It is that sound, and that spirit, that the Islanders will look to bring with them as they move 7 miles west into UBS Arena for the coming season. Just as with the 1980 team — which clinched the first of four straight Stanley Cups when Bobby Nystrom’s breakaway beat the Philadelphia Flyers — or the 2021 version — which, after Anthony Beauvillier’s goal, lost Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals to the Tampa Bay Lightning — this season’s Islanders are good enough to expect a deep postseason run. That has proved to be a potent selling point for the 17,000-seat, $1.1 billion venue located just inside the Nassau County border on Long Island.

The team’s total season-ticket memberships have increased substantially, from approximately bottom five in the NHL to top five for the upcoming season. Additionally, overall ticket sales revenue has moved the Islanders from the same position in the league to the top half — or better — as the 2021-22 season nears.

Heading into UBS Arena, the Islanders have sold out of 12,000 season-ticket memberships, including full seasons, halves and 10-game partial plans, while 3,000 premium seats (club seats and suites) are “tracking to be sold out,” according to Michael Cosentino, senior vice president of sales and service.

At press time, 50 of 56 suites at UBS Arena have been sold, said Tom Pistore, president of commercial operations at UBS Arena, and an estimated “250 to 300 club seats” still remain. Two thousand seats are being held back for group sales, smaller plans and single-game purchases.

“It’s effectively a kid getting thrown around in a candy store,” said Pistore, a former 20-plus year Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment executive, of opening UBS Arena. “People hang on to a lot of nostalgia, and it’s great. I often joke with friends and colleagues — none of us drive cars with carburetors anymore, right. We respect the nostalgia, but it is every sports executive’s passion and I think dream to try and open up a venue because you can create your whole new culture.”

Pistore said there’s been a tenfold increase from the Coliseum to the new arena in terms of premium seating sales and sponsorships — some of which are team-only deals while others are team-arena tie-ups — that will reach the “low nine figures” for 2021-22.

“We are making the most of the number of partners that we will have,” added Bryan Calka, senior vice president of global partnerships. “You will see what I believe is now our biggest strength, which is capitalizing on the success of this team and the success of UBS Arena to not flood the market with 50 partnerships. It’s going to be a very manageable and calculated number of partners.”

Calka couldn’t provide a specific number of current sponsors based on any consolidation, but cited some exclusive relationships: Heineken owns the entire beer category, Long Island-based brokerage firm Daniel Gale is the Islanders’ lone real estate sponsor and no other QSR brand except McDonald’s has a team relationship. With limited open sponsorship categories, including cryptocurrency and betting/gaming, Pistore is preaching patience to his staff. “We’re going to find a solve for one or two key partners, but that’s still evolving given we don’t want to lead out before New York state gets it figured out,” said Pistore of the search for a betting partner.

Elevate Sports Ventures worked with the Islanders and UBS Arena on selling premium seating. Oak View Group, which sold a 20-year arena naming-rights deal to the Swiss investment bank for $350 million last July, according to sources, has led sponsorship sales.

For an organization that waited almost a decade for a new arena to come to life, there is still one more delay ahead. The Islanders will open the season with a 13-game road trip — the second-longest in NHL history — so UBS Arena’s first game won’t actually come until Nov. 20 against the Calgary Flames. That will ensure the arena is as ready for the Islanders and their fans as they are to see the NHL’s newest hockey palace.

7. 

Michael Sciortino, SVP, Arena Operations at UBS Arena

On the afternoon of Sept. 21, two months before UBS Arena at Belmont Park would officially host its first event, Michael Sciortino stood on the floor that will soon be covered with ice for New York Islanders games and eyed the 20 rows of retractable seating that had been pushed back. Suddenly the man whose job it is to run this new, $1.1 billion facility had a thought: We haven’t ordered drapes for these seats.

 

Such is the level of detail currently occupying the headspace of Sciortino, the senior vice president of arena operations and assistant general manager for UBS Arena. In fact, he had confronted a similar problem just two years ago when he served as vice president of operations for the Golden State Warriors, when they opened Chase Center in September 2019 and his staff didn’t initially have the necessary drapes to cover unused seating during a concert.

“Not leaving anything to chance is the theme of how I’m trying to have our [UBS Arena] team manage,” said Sciortino, a 17-year sports events and operations professional who had a four-year stint with the Islanders earlier in his career.

Sciortino oversees a full-time arena operations group of more than two dozen people, including security, information technology, guest experience, event operations and services, engineering and maintenance. His team will effectively power the new UBS Arena, a joint venture between development company Oak View Group, New York Islanders ownership and Sterling Equities, the Wilpon family-led group that for years owned the New York Mets. The arena is expected to eventually host 150-plus sports, music and entertainment events annually, starting with the Islanders’ home opener on Nov. 20 against the Calgary Flames.

“This is one of the biggest nights of the year for [an entertainment event], especially being in the New York market,” said Sciortino. “We have to meet that level of expectation from our clients and, oh by the way, our 17,000 fans are coming in and spending good money to enjoy whatever event it is at our venue. We can’t take that lightly.”

UBS Arena is far from fully staffed. It needs 500 more part-time staff, including ushers, ticket takers and events security, and three more senior management positions also need to be filled within the next month. All of those people will report to Sciortino and his boss, Hank Abate, president of arena operations.

“It can be foolish to think that we’re going to be well-oiled Day 1,” said Sciortino. “Hopefully, we will be well-oiled as far as our guests are concerned. Behind the scenes, we’re certainly going to be catching up after ourselves as much as we need to.”

getty images

Schedule

8. For the first time since the 2019-20 season, a full 82-game regular-season slate is on the calendar. Only two teams — the Montreal Canadiens (33%) and Vancouver Canucks (TBD, but likely less than 50%) — are currently not expected to open with 100% seating capacity.

9.After skipping the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, NHL players are slated to participate in the 2022 Games in Beijing, pending how COVID-19 evolves. The NHL season will shut down for nearly three weeks starting in early February.

10.The NHL’s big in-season events will return for the 2021-22 campaign: The Winter Classic (Wild vs. Blues at Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins, on New Year’s Day); the Stadium Series (Predators vs. Lightning at Nissan Stadium, home of the Tennesee Titans, on Feb. 22); the Heritage Classic (Maple Leafs vs. Sabres at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ontario, on March 13); and All-Star weekend, which will be held at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas Feb. 4-5.

Around the NHL

11. The Edmonton Oilers 50/50 charity raffle, which grossed $90 million in sales across 70 games last season and helped grow the team’s customer database, will return.

12.The New York Rangers are expanding their Humans of Hockey content series, with digital profiles of underrepresented communities and people in hockey.

People

13. Everett Fitzhugh: A Detroit native and the former voice of the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones, he will become the NHL’s first Black team broadcaster when he debuts as the play-by-play radio voice of the Seattle Kraken.

Fitzhughgetty images

14. Peter KentKent is now the chief commercial officer for the Detroit Red Wings, a new position for the club. He’ll oversee corporate sponsorships, activation and ticket sales and services for the Red Wings and Detroit Tigers.

15. Christina Litz: The new chief brand and commercial officer for True North Sports + Entertainment, parent organization for the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets and AHL’s Manitoba Moose.

16. Michael Doyle: The new president of business operations for Canucks Sports and Entertainment, which oversees five pro teams including the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks and AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks.

17. Todd Frederickson: The new vice president of marketing to oversee brand management, advertising, digital media and public relations, among other areas, for the Minnesota Wild.

Other Leagues

18. AHL

The three clubs that opted out of the shortened 2020-21 season — the Charlotte Checkers, Milwaukee Admirals and Springfield Thunderbirds — will return for a season that will feature an increased playoffs to five rounds and 23 teams.

19. ECHL

Following a season in which 12 of 26 clubs opted out of participating due to COVID-19 issues and the Brampton Beast folded in February from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the ECHL is adding two expansion clubs for this campaign: the Trois-Rivières Lions in Quebec and Iowa Heartlanders in Coralville, Iowa. The now 27-team ECHL, which is entering its 34th season, will return to its standard 72-game season.

20. Premier Hockey Federation

Ahead of its seventh season, the six-team National Women’s Hockey League rebranded to the Premier Hockey Federation last month. Team salary caps have doubled from $150,000 to $300,000; Commissioner Tyler Tumminia no longer has the interim tag; and all of the PHF’s six teams are now independently owned. The PHF also announced plans to expand to seven clubs in 2022-23 with the addition of Montreal.

21. Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association

The touring-format Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association begins its third season of the Secret Dream Gap Tour on Nov. 12 with a two-day stop in Truro, Nova Scotia. Teams will return to training hubs in Calgary, Minnesota, Montreal and Toronto while new city Boston will round out the five locations.

Venues and Events

Roy Rochlin for NHL Images

22. At the start of the season, 18 of 32 NHL clubs will require fans to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination or, in some teams’ cases, a negative test will suffice in order to attend games.

23. Last month, the NHL and Fanatics opened a new location for NHL Shop, the league’s flagship retail store, on the west side of Manhattan. It’s the same location for the NHL’s new headquarters, which is moving out of midtown after more than 30 years.

24.The Tampa Bay Lightning will raise its second consecutive Stanley Cup banner Oct. 12 at Amalie Arena as the team hosts the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Lightning will seek to become the first NHL franchise to win three straight titles since the advent of free agency.

25.On Oct. 12, the Vegas Golden Knights will kick off their fifth season at T-Mobile Arena. With this being the team’s fifth year of existence, the “V” within the team marks will stand alone in some instances as it’s used for marketing purposes across billboards, in-arena and on social media.

26. Beginning this season, the LA Royal Army — an independent collection of Los Angeles Kings fans — will be the team’s official supporters group, sitting in Section 303 of Staples Center. The supporters section will feature chants, drums and lower-priced season tickets at $20 per game.

27. The Hockey Hall of Fame induction ceremony will return to welcome last year’s class on Nov. 12-15 in Toronto. Inductees include NHL legends Marian Hossa, Jarome Iginla, Kevin Lowe and Doug Wilson, women’s player Kim St-Pierre and executive Ken Holland.

28. The Arizona Coyotes recently unveiled a $1.7 billion plan to build a rink in Tempe, Ariz., as part of an arena and entertainment district. It’s yet to be determined where the Coyotes would play for the 2022-23 season after the city of Glendale opted out of their agreement that expires after the upcoming season.

Arizona Coyotes

Advertising, Media, and Technology

29. “All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs,” a five-episode documentary series from Amazon, debuted on Prime Video on Oct. 1. It will be the league’s first full-season docuseries and offer a behind-the-scenes look at the franchise’s 2020-21 season both on and off the ice.

30. The Pittsburgh Penguins have a revamped mobile app thanks to locally based mobile app and sports technology company YinzCam. The app now includes mobile ordering and a customized wallet with discounts and PensCash as well as artificial intelligence integration, which recommends fans’ desired seating.

31. Programmable wrist brands are traditionally the norm for the San Jose Sharks’ game light shows, but for 2021-22, the organization installed programmable light devices on every armrest inside the SAP Center. They can be leveraged at any event and eliminate waste and recycling of the bands.

32. Helmet sponsors and virtual on-ice advertising — both of which were implemented last season to help teams retain sponsorship revenue — will remain intact this year as clubs aim to bolster their bottom line. Jersey ads will go into effect beginning with the 2022-23 season. The Washington Capitals became the first NHL team to announce a jersey advertiser in Caesars Entertainment, beginning next season.

Washington Capitals Photography

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NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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