MEDIA MAVEN - Publishing media news and opinion (with some sarcasm and humor) in the Pacific Northwest, covering Seattle TV talent and programming & even a litte beyond. Maybe even some sports. Retired longtime broadcast journalist and manager in multiple top markets, ex-writing prof at UW and PLU in WA St., wrote Season of the 76ers (2002) and a new horror novel, Blood Stained Papers. Kent State and American U Masters alum, Pittsburgh native. Copyright 2025-26 All Rights Reserved
Seattle Kraken TV play-by-play voice, John Forslund, one of the best in the NHL, has signed a deal to stay in the booth. From social media:
The #SeaKraken and @JohnForslund have come to a multi-year agreement to keep the best game announcer in the business onboard as the voice of Seattle hockey ⬇️
Congrats to John on his new agreement!
ReplyDeleteSeconded.
DeleteGood or bad, the best thing about Kraken is their tv broadcasts. John, JT, Ian and Alison. Such a better product than what the Mariners or Storm put out there. I wonder if John is still going to be missing games with his national commitments?
ReplyDeleteI would presume the contract extension is probably an extension on the previous deal which allowed him to miss games for national work. And TBH, the Kraken are not going to care because they have probably the deepest bench in the NHL for play-by-play fill ins with Everett Fitzhugh, Ian and even Mike Benton all able to call PXP and do it well I might add.
DeleteSo the issue then will be what the national commitments for Forslund could look like this season outside of Turner stuff, which he called a game for them last night in Minnesota. The package of games he has been calling in Canada the past couple of years for Amazon had some significant changes for this season, chief among them a move from Monday to Wednesday nights, and since Amazon is actually doing that package as a sublicense from the primary Canadian rights holder Rogers, it is possible Rogers may due to it being a Wednesday broadcast be requiring Amazon to use their network guys on those games. We'll see next week but there's a lot of change up north this fall and a lot of people on both sides of the border are NOT happy about it.