Eddie Olczyk joined the Seattle Kraken broadcast team as a television analyst Thursday.
The 55-year-old spent the past 15 seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks as their TV color analyst.
“It’s been a long process, two months to be exact, and I just appreciate the patience and also the support of TNT for having to navigate through a couple of potholes over the course of a couple of weeks,” Olczyk said. “Without their help this certainly wouldn’t be possible today.
“I’m just very excited to be a part of this franchise, and obviously I’ve got some blood in the game with the Kraken. I’ve mentioned my brother, Ricky, assistant general manager, my oldest son, Eddie, has been an amateur scout there the last couple of years. We’re adding another Olczyk to the Kraken organization and I’m certainly very proud and excited.”
Olczyk had been an in-game analyst for Blackhawks games since 2006-07 and was the lead analyst for the “NHL on TNT” last season after holding the same position for NBC Sports from 2007-21. The NHL and Turner Sports completed the first of a seven-year media rights agreement. He will continue to appear on national game broadcasts for TNT this season.
“We’ve had a lot of dreams here, but this is another day of a dream coming true,” Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke said. “We’re still building, but we’re pretty good builders, but having Eddie join us is awesome. This is another step that shows our ownership’s commitment to building a world-class franchise.
“We are always striving to improve with the goal of someday having the best broadcast in all of the National Hockey League. Adding Eddie to our team gets us closer to that goal. He is one of the best in the business. We are fortunate to be adding Eddie to the already outstanding team of John [Forslund] and JT [Brown] to create a top-flight, three-person broadcast crew for our fans to enjoy.”
Olczyk will serve as an analyst, along with Brown, with Forslund handling play-by-play.
“We’re overjoyed with this,” Forslund said. “Like we said at the beginning of our relationship, JT and I at the beginning of last season, building trust with fans is important, and making sure we’re at the highest level possible. We’ve added a top-level professional and top-level human being. We’re proud of what we did in Year 1 and we’re so excited for what we can do here.”
Olczyk was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in August 2017 and broadcast his first game since then when the Blackhawks played the St. Louis Blues on Oct. 18 of that year. He announced he was cancer-free on March 22, 2018.
“I get to work with the two best,” Brown said. “John’s the best play by play in the NHL, and when you look at what [Eddie has] been able to do, with Chicago and TNT, it’s awesome to be around people like that [him]. Obviously, I started at the beginning of last year, we had growth in Year 1, you’re happy, but it only helps to have the best working with you. It helps us get to that spot where we want to be.”
Selected by the Blackhawks with the No. 3 pick in the 1984 NHL Draft, Olczyk played five seasons for Chicago (1984-87, 1998-2000). He had 794 points (342 goals, 452 assists) in 1,031 NHL games for the Blackhawks, Pittsburgh Penguins, Los Angeles Kings, Winnipeg Jets, New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs. He won the Stanley Cup with the Rangers in 1993-94 and coached the Penguins for two seasons between 2003-05, going 31-64-10 with eight ties.
NHL.com staff writer Tracey Myers contributed to this report
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