NHL coverage on ESPN isn’t going to be the same with longtime analyst Barry Melrose no longer on TV in the opinion of 93.7 The Fan’s Chris Mueller.
It was announced ahead of the start of the new season last week that Melrose would be stepping away from television to spend more time with his family in light of a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis.
Mueller said Melrose’s absence on ESPN is going to be deeply felt.
“His Parkinson’s diagnosis is a huge bummer,” Mueller said. “He was synonymous with hockey over there.”
Mueller felt like the departure of Melrose is already being felt, as evidenced this week by a list published on the NHL page outlining the top 100 NHL players for the 2023-24 season.
Former Penguin Tyler Kennedy was a guest on The PM Team w/ Poni & Mueller and Mueller pointed out that of this top 100 list, Evgeni Malkin was left off. Jake Guentzel was 71st, Kris Letang 56th, newcomer Erik Karlsson was 41st, while superstar Sidney Crosby was 23rd.
That left Kennedy just as confused as Mueller.
“I’d love to see how they come up with this list,” Kennedy said. “Cause I know (Connor) Bedard’s on there, and yes he’s had a great three games. But he’s only got one goal. Are they just guessing of the production or how does this all work? So again, I think the whole list is a little phony. I think they do it just to create some controversy in the league.”
Chris Mueller found that to be a good point because it definitely got a reaction out of him
“If the goal was to get me worked up about it, then they succeeded,” he said.
