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

TORONTO – For the first time in the long, storied history of “Hockey Night in Canada,” the program will not air on the CBC when the NHL season begins this fall. In a joint statement Tuesday, Rogers Sportsnet and the CBC said that the public broadcaster will no longer carry NHL broadcasts.

Here are a few HNIC highlights from over the years:

Oct. 11, 1952: Canada’s first televised NHL game airs. René Lecavalier handles play-by-play in French for the matchup between the Montreal Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wings.

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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.

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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.

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

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

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1966: CBC begins airing hockey games in colour.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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”

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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