The Blackhawks are shuffling more than their roster for next season. They’re reworking their broadcast team, too.
On Thursday, the team announced the hiring of Colby Cohen as a studio analyst on NBC Sports Chicago. The former NHL player and ESPN broadcaster officially is a content analyst who will contribute to all of the Hawks’ platforms, including social media, podcasts and the team’s website.
“The opportunity to have this diverse role within the organization is a dream come true for me,” said Cohen, who was a second-round pick of the Avalanche in 2007. “I love when I’m doing a game and I have all this great interaction with fans. It gives me the opportunity to hear from them on what they wanna talk about, what’s important to them. The fans make this whole ecosystem complete.’’
While discussions continue about potential successors for play-by-play voice Pat Foley, who’s entering his final season in the TV booth, the Hawks changed up their pre- and postgame shows and intermission reports. Longtime analysts Jamal Mayers and Steve Konroyd will not return, and -Cohen, 32, likely will be joined by other new analysts. Pat Boyle will continue to host.
Cohen also will fill in for game analyst Eddie Olczyk when he’s calling national games for TNT. Cohen filled in for Olczyk on one game last season. He has been an analyst for ESPN since 2016 and provided color for the NCAA men’s Frozen Four this year.
“I’m looking forward to give more player content,” he said. “I’m not far removed from playing, and a lot of the Hawks players and others are guys I came up with. I played with [Patrick Kane] on the national development team. The ability to connect with my peers and give that to the fans will be important.”
Remote patrol
Jay Zawaski, an executive producer at The Score, announced that he’s leaving the station (but staying in the radio family) to become the managing editor of podcasts and multimedia at Newsradio 780.
† ESPN 1000 announced that ABC 7 sportscaster Dionne Miller will join Jeff Meller for the station’s Bears pregame show Sundays.
