Some ‘Hockey Night in Canada’ highlights from the show’s long, storied history

Nov. 1, 1952: Foster Hewitt calls the first English-language Hockey Night broadcast, this time between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Boston Bruins. This, like all broadcasts for the next 16 years, is joined mid-game.

___

1955: Producer George Retzlaff uses a kinescope replay to re-examine a goal, introducing one of the first incarnations of what came to be known as instant replay.

___

1957: Changes in technology allow the show to air games from coast to coast at the same time.

___

Oct. 11, 1958: Hewitt turns over the play-by-play reins to his son Bill, taking the new role of colour commentator for himself.

___

1966: CBC begins airing hockey games in colour.

___

1968: HNIC begins showing regular-season games in full, moving the start time to 8 p.m. from 8:30 p.m. This season also sees the debut of “The Hockey Theme,” the syncopated, classic song that ushered in the program for the next 40 years.

___

1970: The Vancouver Canucks join the NHL, giving HNIC a third Canadian team to promote and work into its schedule.

___

1979: The show’s scope expands when the Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets and Quebec Nordiques join the NHL. With the addition of the Calgary Flames a year later, “Hockey Night in Canada” has a total of seven Canadian teams to highlight.

___

1980: Don Cherry is hired to provide commentary between periods and quickly settles into a segment dubbed “Coach’s Corner.” Cherry initially offered his analysis alone, but was eventually joined by host Dave Hodge.

___

1987: Dave Hodge’s Hockey Night in Canada tenure ends after he criticized CBC on-air and famously flipped his pen when the network left a Canadiens-Flyers overtime game.

___

1987: Ron MacLean is brought on board as Hockey Night host and becomes Cherry’s sidekick on “Coach’s Corner.”

___

January 1995: “Hockey Night in Canada” becomes a doubleheader, with an East Coast game airing around 7 p.m. followed by a West Coast game starting around 10 p.m.

___

January 2004: Cherry’s controversial remarks about the use of visors in the NHL, in which he says they were mostly worn by “French guys” and Europeans, prompt CBC to place his segment on a seven-second tape delay for the rest of the season.

___

June 2008: CBC announces that it has not been able to renew the rights to “The Hockey Theme.” TSN subsequently acquires the rights. CBC ultimately runs a countrywide contest to select a replacement.

___

Nov. 26, 2013: Rogers Communications announces it has secured the national broadcasting rights for NHL games in a deal worth $5.2 billion. A four-year sub-licensing agreement allows the CBC to continue airing HNIC on Saturdays and extends French-language rights to TVA in Quebec.

___

March 10, 2014: Rogers announces veteran CBC-TV personality George Stroumboulopoulos will be the next host of “Hockey Night in Canada” in its first major personnel change since acquiring the NHL broadcast rights a few months earlier.

—-

June 27, 2016: Rogers cuts ties with Stroumboulopoulos and reinstates MacLean as “Hockey Night in Canada” host.

—

Dec. 19, 2017: The CBC agrees to a new seven-year sub-licensing agreement with Rogers to keep broadcasting “Hockey Night in Canada” and the Stanley Cup playoffs. The deal runs through the 2025-26 season.

April 6, 2019: Legendary play-by-play broadcaster Bob Cole called the final game of his 50-year Hockey Night in Canada career, a Canadiens-Maple Leafs matchup in Montreal. Cole died in 2024 at age 90.

—-

November 9, 2019: In a HNIC segment, Cherry complains about immigrants not wearing poppies on Remembrance Day. Cherry says, “You people that come here … you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple bucks for a poppy or something like that”

—

November 11, 2019: Sportsnet president Bart Yabsley announced that Cherry will “immediately step down.”

—

Sept. 21, 2021: Veteran broadcaster Jim Hughson announced his retirement after a 42-year career, stepping away as Hockey Night in Canada’s lead play-by-play voice. Chris Cuthbert succeeded him in the role.

April 2, 2025: Rogers announces it has secured the national broadcasting rights for NHL games on all platforms in Canada in a deal worth $11 billion. The agreement, which runs through the 2037-38 season, allows for sub-licensing, but the CBC is not mentioned in the news release.

—-

June 16, 2026: In a joint release, Sportsnet and the CBC say the sub-licensing agreement that allowed HNIC to air on the network expired at the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs and will not be renewed for the 2026-27 NHL season.

—

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2026.

The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

Some ‘Hockey Night in Canada’ highlights from the show’s long, storied history

More Local News