Sean McDonough is back atop an ESPN depth chart. The Boston native, who served as the network's Monday Night Football play-by-play voice for two seasons in 2016 and 2017, will now be the top play-by-play voice for ESPN's NHL coverage, the network announced Tuesday.
The NHL is returning to ESPN next season for the first time since 2004, with the league leaving NBC after agreeing to seven-year deals with both ESPN and Turner Sports.
McDonough has called both NHL and college hockey games for ESPN in the past. He also called Olympic hockey for CBS in 1998. He has been ESPN's No. 2 college football play-by-play voice in recent years and has also called MLB, NBA and college basketball games.
McDonough was the TV play-by-play voice for the Red Sox from 1988-2004 and returned to Red Sox broadcasts on the radio side with WEEI for select games each of the last three seasons.
ESPN announced the rest of its NHL coverage team as well. Steve Levy will serve as the lead studio host and will also do some play-by-play. John Buccigross, Bob Wischusen and Leah Hextall also feature on the play-by-play roster.
ESPN's team of analysts will feature Mark Messier, Chris Chelios, Ray Ferraro, Brian Boucher, Cassie Campbell-Pascal, Kevin Weekes, Ryan Callahan, A.J. Mleczko, Rick DiPietro, Hilary Knight and Barry Melrose.
Linda Cohn, a longtime staple of ESPN's hockey coverage, will continue to host In the Crease, a nightly show on ESPN+, and anchor SportsCenter while also contributing to NHL coverage across other shows and platforms.
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