ESPN unveils its full broadcasting team for 2021-22

This just in, ESPN has unveiled its full broadcasting and reporting team for the 2021-22 NHL season and... well if this teaser trailer doesn't fire you up, nothing will.

Check it out:

Amongst the most high profile hirings are former NHLers Mark Messier, Chris Chelios, Ray Ferraro, Brian Boucher, Ryan Callahan, Kevin Weekes and Rick DiPietro, all of whom will serve as in studio and in arena analysts. The women's game will be well represented with International stars Cassie Campbell-Pascall, A.J. Mleczko and Hilary Knight hopping on as analysts, as well. Of course, Marry Melrose remains with ESPN as its main NHL analyst. 

Play by play calling will be done by Sean McDonough, Steve Levy, Leah Hextall, John Buccigross and Bob Wischusen. If you were like me and you were holding out hope for Gary Thorne... well... no dice...

I'm somewhat surprised though that ESPN hasn't really added much to their reporting team. Emily Kaplan and Greg Wyshynski will return and Blake Bolden will join them, but let's be real... no one is confusing any of these three for Bob McKenzie anytime soon. When Frank Seravalli announced in the Spring that he was leaving TSN, everyone assumed he'd be joining ESPN. But just earlier this month Seravalli announced that he had joined Daily Faceoff as his next outlet. McKenzie is in semi-retirement and it doesn't look like Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreger are leaving TSN anytime soon. Ditto for Sportsnet and their insiders Elliotte Friedman and Chris Johnston. In short, ESPN doesn't really have any good insiders on their roster. Unless they can lure someone else or unless Kaplan, Wyshynski or Bolden up their game this next season, it looks like most NHL newsbreakers will continue to come out of Canada, mostly via TSN or Sportsnet. Which, to me, is really a shame. There are dozens of quality beat reporters in the United States and it would have been cool to see someone in a big hockey market like Boston, Chicago, New York or Detroit to get more of an opportunity to cover the game on a national level for a giant outlet like ESPN. Baby steps, maybe?