Olczyk Joins Kraken Broadcast

Following a summer in which GM Ron Francis and staff power-boosted the franchise roster with top draft choices, key free agent signings and the much-praised Oliver Bjorkstrand trade, the Kraken broadcast team similarly amped up with Thursday's announcement that nationally acclaimed analyst Eddie Olczyk will be joining play-by-play man John Forslund and fellow NHL player-turned-analyst JT Brown to call games on ROOT SPORTS this season.
It's a win-win-win for Seattle fans. The chemistry between the popular duo of Forslund and Brown quickly developed during the Kraken's inaugural season promises to mesh effectively with Olczyk's contributions. Forslund and Olczyk long shared a booth for national games (on NBC and Versus) plus Brown and Olczyk provide the common and vivid perspective of playing the sport in the world's best hockey league. It's going to be fun - and the goal is a regional broadcast second-to-none in the sport.

"I'm thrilled to be reunited with Eddie and work with him for the first time at the team level," said Forslund. "JT and I along with the entire broadcast team are very proud of our first season.
"The addition of Eddie will further enhance our commitment to build trust with the Kraken Nation and deliver a gold standard NHL broadcast."
"Eddie is a great addition to the Seattle Kraken broadcast," said Brown. "He's one of the best and adds another dynamic to the team. I can't wait to get back to work calling games with John, and now Eddie too."
For his part, Olczyk, a former NHL teammate and road roommate of Francis, has admired the Kraken's approach to building the team and connecting with fans.
"The Kraken have made an immediate impact since entering the league and I'm very excited to be joining the organization and getting to know their amazing fans," said Olczyk, a long-time analyst on Chicago Blackhawks telecasts now choosing Seattle as his NHL home team. "I'm looking forward to bringing my experience, passion and love for the game of hockey to Seattle and to the ROOT SPORTS broadcasts.

"I'd like to thank Rocky and Danny Wirtz and the Blackhawks organization, as well as the fans, for all their incredible support over the years and for some unforgettable memories. I've known and worked with John for years and have known JT since he was starting his hockey career and could not be more excited to be working alongside the two of them."
Forslund and Olczyk have done hundreds of games together over the last decade, building a natural bond. Brown and Olczyk have known each other since Brown was teammates with Olczyk's son, Eddie, on the Waterloo (IA) Black Hawks juniors team in the 2008-09 season.
Olczyk fondly recalls Brown as a "nose over the puck" player in "juniors, college, then Tampa Bay, 'Minny' and Anaheim [in the NHL] working to get the puck to certain areas for his teammates." Olczyk anticipates building chemistry and stellar analysis with Brown. Both can drive the conversation to each other, find their certain areas, if you will.
"We will be working off one another, knowing what gets the conversation going, the questions to ask each other," said Olczyk. "We will be there to teach and entertain and bring opinions to the fans. I think [having opinions] is something that is very important."
Most of all, Olczyk wants Kraken fans to know his intent in working alongside the already popular combination of Forslund and Brown: "I'm coming in to add to the broadcast, to be part of the booth with Johnny and JT."
Olczyk agreed to a multi-year deal with the Kraken. He will continue to appear on some 30 national game broadcasts for TNT as the network's lead analyst. The remaining number of ROOT SPORTS game broadcasts, including pre-game, intermission and post-game coverage will be announced in the coming weeks.
"We are always striving to improve with the goal of someday having the best broadcast in all of the National Hockey League," said Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke. "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 and JT to create a top-flight three-person broadcast crew for our fans to enjoy."
Prior to joining TNT, Olczyk began what would ultimately be a 15-year tenure with NBC at the start of the 2006-07 season, serving as the lead color commentator for NHL on NBC. During his time with NBC, Olczyk covered 16 Stanley Cup Finals, 11 Winter Classics, nine Stadium Series games, plus both the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics.
Prior to making his broadcast debut, Olczyk spent 16 seasons in the NHL playing for the Chicago Blackhawks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets (now the Arizona Coyotes), New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings and Pittsburgh Penguins (including two seasons with teammate Ron Francis). He was a member of the Rangers 1994 Stanley Cup-winning team and was inducted in the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 2012.
Forslund's aforementioned remark about working with Olczyk "for the first time at the team level' is pertinent to the scope and potential of Thursday's announcement. Forslund, an accomplished national broadcaster himself, has long expressed the desire to work most of the season with one NHL team. It allows him - and last season, Brown, and, this season, Olczyk, too - the opportunity to connect with fans in season-long conversation about the play on the ice and mood in the town.
Forslund humbly considers himself a "steward" of the sport and no doubt feels the same about Brown and Olczyk: "My role is to augment the sport and tell the story of each game, then how that game and all that follow tell the story of the one season," said Forslund. "A good broadcast is when the viewer/listener feels part of the regimen and habit, getting something out of it, being informed. Some of my best compliments come when fans say they trust what we are saying on the air."
When Forslund was signed by Seattle in January 2021, the move indicated a commitment to Leiweke's vision to build the best local/regional broadcast. During an interview ahead of Forslund's hiring announcement, the Kraken play-by-play maestro and surefire future Hockey Hall of Famer, expressed a similar desire to be the best NHL broadcast with a comment that reflects on Olczyk's work for the Blackhawks telecasts.
"We will put on a hockey show with standards that will live up to what fans love on broadcasts in places like Chicago, New York [Rangers] and Boston," says Forslund. "We will honor the proud hockey history in the Pacific Northwest. We will appeal to younger fans with the sport as our hook. We will have fun."
The fun started in Kraken TV booth last year with Forslund and Brown, who brought his deep knowledge of today's NHL plus a light-hearted and sartorially Grade-A approach to his nightly attire. Forslund and Brown got to know each other - and fans - shift by shift and game by game during the inaugural season. Expect more get-to-know-you and get-to-know-the-game-better moments to unfold in triplicate when the pucks start dropping this fall.