Blackhawks on track to hiring Darren Pang as lead TV analyst
Then-Blues analyst Darren Pang watches play during a game in 2019 in Dallas.
Tony Gutierrez/AP
The Blackhawks are on track to hiring Darren Pang to be their TV analyst, sources said. He was a Hawks goalie for parts of three seasons in the 1980s.
Pang’s contract with Bally Sports Midwest, which carries the Blues, expired. He had been the team’s TV analyst for 14 years. He also works for TNT, for whom he’s covering the Stanley Cup Final. Pang told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch last month that he’s close to signing a three-year extension with the network and that his next team job must accommodate that.
NBC Sports Chicago, which carries the Hawks, had no comment.
Pang is beloved in the hockey community for his exuberance, including his trademark “Holy jumpin’!” He’s candid, funny and insightful on the air and has provided commentary from the booth and between the benches.
He would join Chris Vosters, who completed his first full season as the Hawks’ TV play-by-play voice. Troy Murray and Patrick Sharp shared the analyst’s chair. With Pang planning to continue at TNT, the Hawks still could use either Murray or Sharp to fill in.
One person who won’t fill in is studio analyst Colby Cohen, who announced on Twitter that he’s leaving the Hawks’ broadcast team. After two years in Chicago, he “decided it’s important for my family to be back close to our family and our home in Philadelphia,” he posted.
More to come ...