Suffering injuries is an aspect of professional sports that is universally loathed by fans and athletes. It can lead to the diminution of skill and ability, sometimes catalyzing the path to retirement. Although there are several methods to prevent injuries, they are hardly inevitable, a primary reason as to why today’s generation of athletes is preparing for the next phase of their lives while in the midst of playing. Whether it is during the season or the offseason, these athletes, some of whom refer to themselves as “new media”, tell their own stories by leveraging their platforms, creating content and generating levels of engagement they hope are enough to propel them into a second career in sports media.
Paul Bissonnette grew up in Welland, Ontario with his two parents – Yolande, a college professor for 30 years; Cam, a steelworker – and was an avid fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He got his start playing hockey at a young age as a defenseman, and at the age of 16, began what would be a four-year stint in the Ontario Hockey League. While in the OHL, he took the ice for the North Bay Centennials under head coach Mike Kelly – but after his first season, the team relocated and was renamed the Saginaw Spirit. Additionally, Bissonnette had the opportunity to play on Canadian junior national teams, including on the men’s under-18 team that captured the country’s first IIHF World U18 Championship in 2003. Shortly thereafter, he was drafted in the fourth round by the Pittsburgh Penguins, making his dream of playing in the NHL closer to becoming a reality.
After two more years in the OHL, Bissonnette transitioned to playing in the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) with the Wheeling Nailers, splitting his time with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the American Hockey League (AHL). Known as a tenacious defender and enforcer on the ice, Bissonnette worked to elevate his skillset and earned his nickname “BizNasty”. He then secured a spot on the 2008-09 Pittsburgh Penguins roster, a team that would go on to win the Stanley Cup in a thrilling seven-game series against the Detroit Red Wings that ended on a sprawling series of saves by Marc-André Fleury.
The next season, Bissonnette joined the Phoenix Coyotes on a waiver claim, and spent the next five years with the organization as a role player, meaning that he was usually either in the lineup or listed as a healthy scratch. Nonetheless, he was grateful to be on an NHL team and did whatever he needed to do to stay there by utilizing every opportunity he could to make a name for himself both on and off the ice.
“I went from being a kid in Welland, Ontario… to being a fourth-line plug in the NHL,” said Bissonnette. “Even if it would have ended there – ask anybody who I played with in Arizona – I never took a day on the plane eating steaks and flying private and getting to experience the best league in the world for granted”.
After failing to make NHL rosters for both the St. Louis Blues and newly-renamed Arizona Coyotes, Bissonnette signed with the Manchester Monarchs, the AHL affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings. Following his first season in which he played 48 games and served 167 penalty minutes en route to a Calder Cup championship, the team relocated and was named the Ontario Reign. At the start of the 2016-17 season, Bissonnette tore his first ACL, but opted not to get surgery and quickly rehabbed it so he could get back on the ice. In his first game back though, Bissonnette tore his other ACL, and ended his career in a fight with two torn ligaments.
Throughout this time in professional hockey though, Bissonnette was doing more than just focusing on his abilities on the ice. In his spare time, he would interact with fans on Twitter, talking about the game of hockey from the perspective of a hockey player. Once he knew his playing career was coming to an end, he began having conversations with Rich Nairn, the Arizona Coyotes’ executive vice president of communications and broadcasting, about potentially joining the organization as the color commentator for game broadcasts on 98.7 KMVP-FM, the team’s then-flagship station. While his time on the ice was ending, a door into sports media was gradually opening, setting up Bissonnette’s meteoric rise in the industry as a name synonymous with hockey coverage.
“It kind of really spiraled and really took formation in my last year,” Bissonnette said of his start in sports media. “There wasn’t really a plan as far as vision as to what I was going to do. It was more so was just kind of offered and I said, ‘You know what? That would be a good opportunity to start doing the radio broadcasts.’”
With play-by-play veteran Bob Heethius by his side, Bissonnette spent the next three seasons working on radio broadcasts and also created online content for the team; however, it was not the only role in sports media he held. Shortly after his retirement, Bissonnette began working on a web series for Barstool Sports called BizNasty Does BC, in which he explored the province of British Columbia while joined by hockey players including Shea Weber, Morgan Rielly and Connor McDavid. The web series was released shortly after the conclusion of the 2017-18 Coyotes’ season, and generated immense viewing numbers and rave reviews.
“I had already done stuff in front of the camera,” said Bissonnette. “It was more about being able to test the creative side, and also with the social media stuff and the original content tending to do pretty [well] just overall from the broad scale – [so] I did that.”
Before joining the radio, Bissonnette had appeared on the Spittin’ Chiclets hockey podcast various times, hosted by his former Penguins teammate Ryan Whitney, along with Barstool Sports writer Rear Admiral and show producer Mike Grinnell. The show, released periodically whether or not there is hockey being played, focuses on the NHL while also talking about other aspects of sports and pop culture at large. Halfway through his first season on the radio, Bissonnette was asked to join as a co-host of the podcast, and while he was excited for the opportunity, he decided to wait until he concluded his first season as a color commentator to make it official.
“It was something that started as a tweet many years prior with Whit reaching out to myself and Colby Armstrong,” said Bissonnette. “After being a guest on the show [and] seeing the positivity from the fanbase, they figured it would be wise to add another guy. I did that at the end of that first season with the Coyotes [because I] just really wanted to make sure I got my feet wet and was comfortable doing the media thing. Then, [I] took the plunge into the podcast.”
After three seasons working as a color commentator on the radio, Bissonnette transitioned to become a studio analyst with the Arizona Coyotes, providing his insight during pregame, intermission and postgame shows. He worked in that role throughout the 2020-21 season before the National Hockey League agreed to a new multiplatform media rights deal with ESPN and Turner Sports reportedly worth in excess of a combined $625 million per year. Both networks made it a point to bring on a wide array of commentators and analysts with the intention of garnering ratings and revenue on linear and direct-to-consumer platforms while helping to grow the game of hockey on a global scale.
ESPN’s primary broadcast team was announced as Sean McDonough on the play-by-play, Ray Ferraro as the lead analyst and Emily Kaplan as the network reporter. In the studio, coverage was hosted by Steve Levy, who was joined by Hockey Hall of Fame members Mark Messier and Chris Chelios as studio analysts. The network broadcast the 2021-22 Eastern Conference Finals between the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning, and held the rights to this year’s Stanley Cup Finals between the Lightning and Colorado Avalanche.
Conversely, Turner Sports announced its primary broadcast team as Kenny Albert on the play-by-play and Eddie Olczyk as the lead analyst, with a rotation of ice-level analysts and reporters throughout the season. The studio coverage was anchored by Liam McHugh, and featured analysts and former players Rick Tocchet, Anson Carter, Wayne Gretzky and, of course, Bissonnette.
“It’s different, and I think from never really saying ‘no’ to anything, it taught me how to adapt and try to learn on the fly,” Bissonnette said of his first season on national television. “….With TNT and all of the guys involved, that helped for the transition and really helped get my feet wet even more so on the broadcasting side… It evolved, and I was really able to get my reps with the Coyotes and learn from my mistakes, and then that’s what helped me transition to the broadcast.”
Bissonnette is regularly in Turner’s Atlanta-based studios during national game coverage, the same facility where Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal broadcast the award-winning Inside the NBA. Building the chemistry and rapport akin to the crew on that show is something that was quickly established from the day of Bissonnette’s tryout at Turner Sports. In fact, it was an easy transition for him since the Inside the NBA staff ran the tryout and Barkley helped commence the network’s NHL studio coverage.
“Having Charles [Barkley] on that show that we did just to kick things off took a lot of the pressure [off] and added a lot of levity to the group,” reflected Bissonnette. “It was such a special moment for us to start the season, and it kicked us off in the right way.”
While Bissonnette and his colleagues knew how to interact with one another on the show, the challenge was keeping the momentum going throughout the lengthy 82-game season. Hockey is often regarded as being inferior to football, basketball and baseball in terms of its popularity within the American sports landscape; however, Bissonnette believes the game is in the midst of sustained growth, especially because of the excitement derived from the playoffs. That requires a shift in thinking from covering the game from a team perspective to covering players, both from their games on the ice to their personalities and lifestyles off of it.
“I think there is a fine balance in still keeping the integrity of the tradition of hockey and how it is more team-oriented, but ultimately what we know is that the individuals and the stars drive the sport; people want to know about the individuals – that’s how they get more drawn-in,” remarked Bissonnette. “I feel like the league is doing a better job – teams are allowing more access, even doing their own.”
One of the catalysts to help grow the game is in its media coverage, something Bissonnette finds himself within more so than ever before as a color commentator, studio analyst and podcaster. While there is some element of competition between NHL coverage from ESPN as opposed to Turner Sports, Bissonnette knows that having the league shown nationally across two large networks gives the sport a better chance to permeate into the psyche of sports fans in general, and even potentially attract those not interested in sports.
“I think we’re just happy that the game is growing,” said Bissonnette. “We’re happy that both networks were able to get in. I just think that we’re professional and we want to do our best every show. We make sure that we’re brainstorming and putting in opinions and really doing a lot of the due diligence and brainstorming before we ever get there.”
From the inaugural pregame show in-studio to the outdoor game between the Minnesota Wild and Nashville Predators from Nissan Stadium in Nashville to a lost bet that resulted in his head being shaved on national television, Bissonnette’s first year on national NHL coverage was certainly a memorable one. He has been able to successfully appeal to various demographics across multiple platforms, and has helped bring out the personalities of his other colleagues as well throughout the course of the season. As he looks ahead to another busy season with Turner Sports set to broadcast the Stanley Cup Finals, Bissonnette is excited to create more memorable moments on the air – but that comes with first improving the existing product.
“Knowing that we have the Finals — it’s awesome!,” Bissonnette exclaimed. “[Not having it this year] was almost a blessing in disguise because this was the first time that I’ve ever done network, and then being on throughout the whole playoffs the way that we were, I probably would have been gassed for the Finals. Getting to learn that stamina was a blessing in disguise, so I’m just really looking forward to everybody getting back in the saddle, learning from our mistakes, getting better and trying to amplify the product for next year.”
Despite being a studio analyst for Turner Sports’ coverage of the National Hockey League, Bissonnette still enjoys podcasting because of the freedom it gives him to talk about topics in the ways he desires to discuss them. He and his colleagues look at their podcast, which is associated with Barstool Sports, as a business, trying to maximize opportunities for innovation and reach.
“I like to beat to my own drum,” said Bissonnette. “I love the freedom. As much as I love everything network-wise… and getting to experience that side of [the industry], I’ll always want to do my own film projects. I’ll always want to say and be able to kind of bring things in the direction I want to bring them and be silly about it because it’s just sports and I think it should be silly.”
The “new media” movement, exemplified in the NBA with the endeavors of Draymond Green joining Turner Sports as a contributor and hosting a podcast on The Volume, shows no signs of slowing down. Yet there seems to be a smaller cohort of NHL players willing to express their opinions or show their personalities off the ice than in leagues like the NBA, potentially stymying the acceleration of growth in that regard.
“Hockey players are a little bit less likely to stand out,” Bissonnette said. “I think that’s why P.K. Subban is so embraced and has such a big following – because hockey fans are starving to see guys allow them access into their life… I definitely think more players will start doing that and opening up themselves more and more to fans.”
The sport of hockey definitively remains on an upward trajectory, with both regional and national networks displaying the nascent pace, perseverance and proficiency of its players on a near-daily basis over nearly seven months – preseason and playoff games notwithstanding. The excitement engendered by the sport, along with its growing appeal to those within younger demographics, is reason to be optimistic about the future of the game.
“In my personal opinion, I think that the trajectory that hockey is on could maybe someday potentially compete with the NBA – maybe be a little bit behind it – but I think it’s past baseball,” Bissonnette said. “I think that hockey is on a rocket ship and there’s more development and more skill, so overall, there is room for improvement, but I am very impressed with the way they are evolving and allowing these guys to show more personality and putting these guys on a pedestal.”
Indeed, Bissonnette has effectuated a robust second career for himself after a devastating injury ended his playing career. He hopes to continue to bring his light-hearted, convivial spirit to his current media jobs, along with opportunities that may arise in the future.
“The biggest compliment we can get as a podcast when we’re on the road is, ‘Hey, I wasn’t even a big hockey fan, but since I started following your guys’ podcast, I started paying attention more and I became the biggest hockey fan,’” Bissonnette said. “For what the game has done for me personally and the life it’s led me and the path it’s led me down, now it’s all about trying to grow the game and give back to this amazing sport.”
Derek Futterman is a former associate editor and sports media reporter for Barrett Media. He previously interned for Paramount within Showtime Networks, wrote for the Long Island Herald and served as lead sports producer at NY2C. Find him on X @derekfutterman.
