After four seasons as a TV analyst for the Seattle Kraken, Eddie Olczyk is stepping away.
Olczyk and the NHL team announced Tuesday that the former NHL star and longtime broadcaster is leaving his role with the Kraken Hockey Network to spend more time with his family in Chicago and work a more relaxed national broadcast schedule.
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“I’ve done the same schedule for the last 20 years,” Olczyk told Kraken reporter Geoff Baker. “It just comes to a point where you have to make a decision. It’s been in the making, and I just thought this was the time that I wanted to be home more.”
Olczyk had been with the organization since 2022, joining play-by-play voice John Forslund and analyst JT Brown in the booth. Prior to that, he was an analyst for the Chicago Blackhawks between 2006 and 2022.
The move allows Olczyk to put his focus on national TV games for TNT, where he will continue to be their top analyst. Last season, the 59-year-old worked 65 national games, including Stanley Cup Playoff coverage, along with calling Kraken games and working national radio assignments. He also called Olympic hockey for NBC in Paris.
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Olczyk had originally taken the Kraken job in part due to familial connections. His brother Ricky is assistant general manager, his son Eddie is an amateur scout, and his son Nick previously worked on Kraken broadcasts before leaving to join the Utah Mammoth.
“Everything has revolved around my hockey career since 1988 when I got married to my wife,” Olczyk told Baker. “Everything has been centered around my schedule. Well, that’s changing. And now’s the time.”
The Kraken Hockey Network is expected to keep Forslund and Brown as a two-person booth for the upcoming season, as they had worked during Seattle’s debut 2021-22 season before Olczyk joined.
“I have nothing but good things to say about him,” Brown told Baker of Olczyk. “We obviously knew each other from before, but this took things to an entirely different level where I got to watch one of the best and add and grow from what I’d been doing. His preparation is second to none, and there’s really nothing going on in the game at any given moment that he wasn’t fully aware of.”
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