Former Bolts goalie Kevin Weekes became a pioneer in hockey broadcasting

It isn’t difficult to find Kevin Weekes talking about hockey.

Some days it’s during an NHL intermission report, and other times it’s through a microphone as he talks on a hockey podcast. Maybe he’s on social media breaking the news of the latest blockbuster trade happening behind the scenes while the rest of the world sleeps.

Regardless of the medium, Weekes’ voice carries weight.

The retired NHL goaltender who appeared in 80 games for the Tampa Bay Lightning from 2000 to 2002 has become a pioneer—following a playing career of nearly 350 NHL games, Weekes became the first full-time Black sportscaster in hockey.

It’s a job he relishes to this day.

“It’s something I'm very proud of and I'm very humbled by. I’m happy to see other people have looked at that as a career opportunity as well, many of whom that I've helped, directly and indirectly,” Weekes said. “To me, there's a lot of factors that indicate the growth of a sport, but when you see different faces from different places and different ages, different genders and different skin tones and different last names and different eye colors, regardless of any of those things, they want to watch your sport and they're passionate about your sport. They want to play the sport. Their daughters or granddaughters play, whatever the case may be—Tampa being a great test case for that, among others—that really is a great indicator of the growth.”

Weekesy the NHL insider

Weekes was 34 years old in the summer of 2009, fresh off starting 13 games while posting an impressive .920 save percentage in the New Jersey Devils crease over the 2008-09 season.

His agent called to share he had multiple contract offers and to prepare for his 12th NHL season, but the free agent market shifted. Suddenly, Weekes’ phone was being bombarded with offers of a different nature.

Multiple television networks wanted to involve the goalie in their broadcasts and reached out to gauge his interest in beginning a new game day routine.

“I was pretty open-minded about it and spoke to my family and friends at length about it when we were there, and at that point I said, ‘Hey, these opportunities to do this might not be here. I've exhausted every opportunity to play. I've squeezed everything out of the sponge, so to speak, from a playing standpoint. Let me chart a new course.’ And I decided I was going to turn a new course to do exactly that.”

Soon Weekes could be seen on television screens working for Hockey Night in Canada, NHL Network and MSG New York, and his broadcasting career has never slowed. Today he can be seen in a number of places including ESPN, NHL Network and on NHL.com, working as an insider, broadcaster and analyst.

He was inspired by the late John Saunders, who used to work for ESPN. Saunders’ brother, Bernie, played for the Quebec Nordiques while John played college hockey. Weekes grew up watching Saunders on television.

Weekes was always comfortable working with media as a player, which made the career transition easier for him.

One Weekes trademark can be seen on social media, where he posts videos centered on his forehead as he breaks trades and NHL news. The videos began as a blooper, but also because he wanted to take the next step in his career three years ago near the NHL trade deadline.

Weekes began getting information on possible news he wanted to break, and those in media were telling him they should wait.

“They would basically say, ‘Well, so-and-so is an insider, and so-and-so is an insider.’ As if to say I was an outsider, and I've been playing this game since 1979 at St Mike's Arena playing house league up in Toronto at one of the most historic arenas in the world.”

Weekes began getting frustrated and talked with his wife, who works as a global chief marketing officer. She advised him to begin breaking news himself since he has a connection to the fans as a former player, and it hasn’t stopped since.

In one of the first breaking news videos, the camera was closer to his face than usual, and another happened while he was at a spa with his wife with bamboo sticks and green lighting in the background. He began to doubt the idea after some feedback, but it took off after his wife reminded him that being different isn’t a bad thing.

“People kept roasting me, and I'm like, ‘I'm a clown. People think this is crazy.’ She's like, ‘Are you crazy? That’s the genius of it.’ So I had to go along with the chief global marketing officer in the house and, thankfully, I listened to her,” Weekes said.

"And in a way too, I listened to the fans because for a lot of the fans that are pure, there's a lot of authenticity, and they'll give you the feedback on what they like and what they don't like…You can't control where you get news. I've got news literally in the shower. I've got news in the bathroom. I've got news while eating dinner or while being dead asleep, being on the treadmill here at the house in the basement, changing our son.”

Fans now look forward to the close-up breaking news videos in various environments. After all, news happens everywhere.

“News doesn't wait for a time that's convenient for you,” Weekes said. “When news comes your way and you're able to verify it to the best of your ability, you’ve got to pounce and you’ve got to move, and that's how that took flight.”

NHL alumnus ‘loved’ his time in Tampa

Many years ago before Weekes was interviewing players, he was on the other side of the microphone as an NHL goalie. That included his two seasons in Tampa, a place he said has separated itself across the league.

Weekes lived on Harbour Island, as did Brad Richards and Vincent Lecavalier. He still owns a home in Florida.

“A lot of us were young players that were just trying to establish ourselves in the league…and ultimately, it gave me the opportunity to play a lot of games. I was peppered. I saw a lot of pucks, and my first year I played north of 60 games. It gave me a chance to develop, but also to grow as a young man, and I love Florida…It was really cool. The people were great. The fans were great and the coaching staff, too…You could tell that we were on the brink of something.”

Tampa Bay went on to win the Stanley Cup two seasons after Weekes’ departure, and the winning has continued in the organization. He still laughs when he recalls one conversation with former Lightning captain Martin St. Louis, who was central in that 2004 Stanley Cup run.

Weekes and St. Louis had played together the year prior in the International Hockey League (IHL) and became teammates with Tampa Bay. They were talking postgame, and suddenly St. Louis was asking Weekes for advice.

“Marty said to me, he was like, ‘I know I could do more to help the team.’ And I'm like, ‘Marty, you don't have to sell me, bro. I’m sold. I played against you, I know how skilled you are, I know your game.’”

I said, ‘What do I think? Why are you telling me, bro? Go talk to the coach (Laughs). You're telling me. What am I gonna do? I'm gonna put you on the power play? I love your game. I'm a huge fan, and you're a great guy, but you gotta go talk to him…Go and tell him in a way that's respectful, go say something to him.’ Within a few years, he went from that to league MVP and one of the best players on the planet, and the base of that team went on to win the Stanley Cup years later.”

Credit to current Bolts

Weekes will tell you the organization’s continued success is no coincidence, helped by an ownership group that cares as well as incorporating brilliant hockey minds that include players, management and now Head Coach Jon Cooper.

He experienced it firsthand.

“When the talk is typically positive about a place, that's where you'll see more people want to spend more time there, and guys want to get traded there or sign there as free agents and play as long as they can, retire there, or what have you. That's really a testament to Tampa and the people and how much it's grown. To the ownership investing in youth hockey, investing in infrastructure and real estate and residential, commercial. It’s just grown so much, and a lot of that was driven by Jeff Vinik and the organization as well as their commitment to the city and to the area, and also to the success that they've had with the players, the staff and the coaches.”

He also gave a nod to Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, who co-leads the league in wins this season and is one of the best to ever guard the net. He remembers meeting the goalie for the first time many years ago.​

“I’d been hearing about him from buddies of mine that are in Russia. I'd been hearing about him from (Lightning goalie coach) Frantz Jean and everybody else.”

“At that point, I'm like, this guy's got something special. I remember my good friend, the great Henrik Lundqvist, told me years ago, he said, ‘Weekesy, that's the best goalie in the NHL.’ It was after Tampa played a game at Madison Square Garden, and Hank told me in his stall, he said, ‘That guy? It’s the best goalie in the NHL.’ And he's lived up to that. Obviously there’s other guys, but Vasy is a Hall of Fame lock. He's worked extremely hard for everything, and him and Frantz have helped Tampa and the Lightning accomplish some pretty amazing things.”

So has Weekes, who said he is glad that his career included time in Tampa. It has allowed him to build relationships with many people in Tampa, including Cooper as well as key Black voices in the sport such as Jean and Tampa Bay video coach Nigel Kirwan.

He appreciates that the sport has expanded in its involvement of people from different genders, backgrounds and race while growing the game in new places. That work, though, never stops.

“I certainly think there's a lot more growth that's possible just based on how good our sport is, how exciting it is, how fun it is to play, how fun it is to watch…I think there's been some nice steps, and there's been some major growth. If you were to look around Channelside before Channelside was Channelside, if you were to look around the arena when it was the St. Pete Times Forum and you look at the transformation around there and how many people now live, breathe, eat, sleep the game in the Tampa area, for example…it's grown exponentially,” Weekes said.

"That's a living, breathing example of some of the changes we've seen. But like anything else, you can't get complacent. I still think that there's a lot of room for growth in different areas across the board.”