After almost two decades away from the Worldwide Leader in Sports™, the NHL appears poised to once again shack up with ESPN and put on some mouse ears for the time being, as Sportsnet reported only a few minutes ago:
Sources: ESPN is signing a seven-year deal with the NHL as part of the league's new U.S. media rights package.https://t.co/R7VeixXYq7
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) March 9, 2021
Starting post-2004 lockout, the NHL entered a lucrative deal with NBC that was coming to an end this year, and it seemed like NBC probably wasn’t going to be the most helpful in getting eyes on the product, especially since it looked like they were going to move national games to USA.