'One Of The Best People You'll Ever Meet'

A Hall of Fame broadcaster.

And a universally-loved icon of the Flames family.

That’s how longtime radio voice Peter Maher is being remembered by Flames alumni, former colleagues, and Calgarians both here and around the hockey world.

Maher spent more than three decades - and nearly 3,000 games - in the Calgary broadcast booth, bringing the action from around the National Hockey League to living rooms and car stereos back home. His calls included the Flames’ Stanley Cup triumph in 1989, trips to the Finals in 1986 and 2004 and Canada’s golden moment at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. 

“People could close their eyes and picture the play,” former Calgary captain Lanny McDonald reminisced. “It was that good.”

But off the air, Maher is being remembered as a true gentleman of the game. A man who made time for family, for colleagues, players and fans alike. 

And more than any one particular ‘Yeah, Baby!’ or pronouncement that the Flames could put another one in the win column, McDonald recalls time after time where the larger-than-life Maher gave back.

“He was tireless out in the community,” said McDonald over the phone Thursday. “He was as popular as any of the players when he went to an event. He had a great knack of being able to tell stories, and you felt like you were right back there.

“The original owners, what they started in Calgary, they bred into all of us like, ‘This is a family, and you have to look out for each other.’ Peter fit perfectly into that mould about what we were trying to do, not only on the ice, but in the community.”

Social media was full of tributes and memories of Maher and his legacy Thursday, from fellow Hall of Famers, to media colleagues here and around the NHL to more recent Flames alumni including Blake Coleman and MacKenzie Weegar. The duo were the two most recent recipients of the Peter Maher Award, given annually by the local media to the ‘Good Guy’ in the Calgary dressing room. Even though the duo have traded their postal code for zip digits in Minnesota and Utah, respectively, they were each among the many voices sharing Maher memories once news of the longtime broadcaster’s passing filtered out into the public sphere.

Also sharing memories, Maher’s former analyst in the Flames radio booth.

Mike Rogers spent a dozen years alongside Maher, a run that included Calgary’s trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 2004, and like McDonald, he found a bond with his broadcast mate right from the first drop of the puck.

“He was my mentor, just helped me along so much in the broadcast booth,” said Rogers, who was on the call from 2000 to 2012. “I guess the best thing to say about Peter Maher is just that he was maybe the best person I’ve ever met. The time I got to spend with him, the laughs and enjoyment that we had, just to be able to spend all that time with him over those years, the memories are invaluable. 

“Even when we were on the road, we’d go to different rinks and you’d see different people in the media and how happy they were to see Pete. They looked for him and they wanted to see him because they knew they were going to have a great conversation with one of the best people you’ll ever meet.”

McDonald was right alongside Maher for arguably his greatest career accolade, too. The former captain was part of the selection committee at the Hockey Hall of Fame when Maher was inducted in 2006; a full-circle moment in Toronto, where the two both started their NHL careers.

“It was so cool when you knew the background,” shared McDonald. “To be able to know him in Toronto, he comes out West and starts all over again, and the run the two of us had and then (we) both end up as representatives in the Hockey Hall of Fame, pretty damn cool. 

“But so richly deserved by him.”

Maher’s legacy is richly deserved, too. Come October, when the Flames open up the 2026-27 regular season in their final Scotiabank Saddledome campaign, the action will once again be described over the airwaves from the radio booth bearing his name.

Stories told, in homage of a master storyteller, a friend to many.

And truly, a Flames legend.

“He was loved because of the job he did on the air,” said Rogers. “He was loved because of the person he was.”

“You loved sharing time with him because you knew he had your back all the time,” added McDonald. 

“He looked at everything positively.”