Kelly Hrudey says his time on Hockey Night in Canada has come to an end.
Hrudey, 65, said in a video social media post late Wednesday that he was told on June 19 that his contract would not be renewed for next season. He joined Hockey Night in Canada on a full-time basis immediately after his retirement as an NHL player in 1998.
“I thank you, the viewer. You might have hated me or loved me — I’m OK with either,” he said.
Rogers Communications took over exclusive Canadian national broadcast rights for the NHL beginning in the 2014-15 season, airing games on Sportsnet and Citytv properties, though Hockey Night in Canada games still appeared on CBC-TV in a sublicensing arrangement through this past season.
During his time with the show, Hrudey worked both in the booth at NHL arenas during games broadcast by HNIC and in studio in Toronto, working alongside show host Ron MacLean and other analysts.
Hrudey enjoyed a nearly two-decade NHL career as a goaltender with the New York Islanders, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks. For several years that experience framed the Behind the Mask segment on HNIC, where he analyzed the play of NHL goalies.
Toward the end of his playing career, when his teams didn’t qualify for the postseason, Hrudey joined HNIC for its playoff coverage, impressing the show’s producers enough to ultimately land a full-time role upon retiring.
Hrudey on Wednesday thanked the show’s directors, production staff and hair and makeup crew, joking that the latter “did an impossible job.”
“You weren’t a co-worker to me, you were a friend,” he said of longtime and former colleagues.
Hrudey, who was born in Edmonton and lives in Calgary, has used his platform over the years to advocate for mental health, documenting his struggles with anxiety and his daughter Kaitlin’s obsessive-compulsive disorder diagnosis.
In 2017, HarperCollins Canada published his book Calling the Shots: Ups, Downs and Rebounds – My Life in the Great Game of Hockey, co-written with Kirstie McLellan Day.
Hrudey in his video stressed that “this is not a retirement,” though he didn’t reveal any future plans.
HNIC analyst Elliotte Friedman thanked Hrudey for their 22 years working together on Hockey Night in Canada.
“Still shocked. Hard to find the right things to say,” Friedman said on X.
It was announced in June that beginning next season, NHL games will not be on CBC for the first time in nearly 75 years. Further changes to the Canadian hockey viewer experience were subsequently announced, with an expansion of the number of games streamed on Amazon’s Prime Video beginning next season.
Prime Video to exclusively broadcast Wednesday night national NHL regular-season games in Canada
CBC will no longer air NHL games in ‘end of an era’ as broadcast deal expires
Rogers has not commented on Hrudey’s status.
Hrudey’s announcement marks the second departure ahead of next season of an on-air HNIC mainstay. Longtime CBC Sports reporter Scott Oake — who hosted the show’s After Hours segment for over two decades — announced his planned retirement in April.
