In the season debut of his hockey column, SportsCenter anchor and ESPN hockey writer John Buccigross predicts that ESPN will return to broadcasting NHL games, as was rumored earlier in the summer.
Buccigross writes “I would say yes,” to the suggestion that ESPN return to broadcasting games for the first time since 2004. “NHL players want it, the NHL wants it and ESPN wants it. NBC and Versus somewhat holds the cards however, so we will have to wait and see; but my guess is yes. ESPN will have a piece of the pie.”
Should ESPN return to broadcasting NHL games, the network would replace NBC, the current over-the-air NHL rights holder. NBC is beginning a new two-year contract this season, one that includes an option to televise games in 2008-9. Any opportunity for a return to hockey for ESPN depends on whether or not NBC exercises that option. William Houston of the Toronto Globe and Mail reported last month that “[s]ources close to [NBC] say it plans to exercise its option for 2008-09. It does not view its profit-sharing partnership with the NHL as a failure. Some money (not much) has been made, apparently.”
In another NHL-related article, one that was the featured piece on ESPN.com on Wednesday, ESPN the Magazine reporter Lindsay Berra says that when “when we asked our bosses in Bristol for the inside scoop” on the potential return of the NHL to the network, “they sent us a dozen Barry Melrose bobbleheads“. Whether any perceived secrecy on the part of ESPN executives is an indication of potential or ongoing negotiations, or simply a lack of interest in a dead rumor, remains to be seen.
