Barry Melrose, the familiar face and voice of NHL coverage on ESPN for decades, died Wednesday. He was 70, according to ESPN. Melrose worked at ESPN from 1996 until his retirement in 2023 after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
Melrose’s ties to the game extended well beyond television. He was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in 1976 from the Kamloops Chiefs and played roughly 300 NHL games as a defenseman with Winnipeg, Toronto and Detroit. He later coached the Los Angeles Kings, guiding Wayne Gretzky and the Kings to the 1993 Stanley Cup Final.
On air, Melrose became a fixture for American hockey fans, breaking down highlights on programs such as NHL 2Night, appearing on SportsCenter and trading barbs on PTI. Steve Levy, his longtime colleague at ESPN, called him “the unquestioned face and voice of hockey in the United States,” saying Melrose had been that figure for more than 30 years.
Players and broadcasters reacted to Melrose’s death. Vegas Golden Knights center Jack Eichel said Melrose “was a legend of the game of hockey” and that “he will be missed.” ESPN analyst and former NHL goaltender Kevin Weekes praised Melrose for bringing flair to the airwaves and helping to amplify the sport. Kevin Clark, host of This Is Football on ESPN2, called Melrose a “godsend” for the sport and for ESPN. John Buccigross described Melrose as a close friend and a “big-brother figure of rock-solid values.”
Colleagues recalled Melrose’s distinctive presence — the mullet, audacious suit jackets, booming laugh — and his role as a gateway to hockey for U.S. viewers, often serving as the lone consistent voice for the sport amid broader sports coverage. Buccigross said he learned of Melrose’s death while at an NHL/NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas, adding that the rink was “Barry’s home.” Steve Levy said, “Now he can drink all the Bud Lights and smoke all the cigars and play all the rounds of golf he wants.”
