Another highly regarded sports media figure has passed away.
Dallas Stars and NBC NHL play-by-play voice Dave Strader died Sunday at age 62, fifteen months after he was diagnosed with a rare form of bile duct cancer.
Strader had been with the Stars since 2015 and NBC since 2005. For several years, he was second on NBC’s play-by-play depth chart behind Mike Emrick, most notably working the 2009 Winter Classic after Emrick came down with laryngitis.
He managed to work nine games last season, four locally for the Stars and five for NBC. His final broadcast was a Senators-Rangers second round playoff game last May.
Strader was named a recipient of the Hockey Hall of Fame Foster Hewitt Memorial Award in April and will be inducted posthumously next month.
In addition to his work for the Stars and ESPN/ABC, Strader previously worked for the Coyotes, Red Wings, ESPN/ABC and Fox Sports. He was not limited to hockey, calling Olympic, college and WNBA basketball during his career.
It has been a grim decade for the sports media industry, which has already weathered the losses of such prominent, well-respected figures as Stuart Scott, John Saunders, Craig Sager, Nick Charles and Bryan Burwell, each at a young age.
[News from NHL.com 10.1]
