Jennifer Botterill is off Sportsnet and headed to the NHL on TNT booth, starting with Friday's Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild preseason game.
She confirmed the move to The Globe and Mail's Rachel Brady this week. This time, she'll mostly work from the booth rather than the studio.
Her Sportsnet exit never got an announcement. It surfaced on September 9, when the network rolled out the panel for its rebranded Saturday Night Hockey.
Her chair went to Colby Armstrong. He'll sit beside Kevin Bieksa, Elliotte Friedman and host Ron MacLean when the show launches October 3.
Consider who's no longer on that set. Botterill is a Hockey Hall of Famer and a three-time Olympic champion who spent more than half a decade as the panel's only woman.
Losing her is a mistake, plain and simple. She was the one voice at that desk that didn't sound like everyone else's.
Rebuilding the show without her is like repainting the house and tossing the family photos out with the old wallpaper.
Kelly Hrudey and Scott Oake are gone from Hockey Night in Canada too
Botterill isn't the only familiar face missing. Kelly Hrudey revealed in an August 5 video that Sportsnet told him in June his contract would lapse.
That ended a 28-year run on the broadcast and cost him his seat in the Calgary Flames' regional booth after 12 seasons.
Scott Oake, the longtime face of After Hours, retired in April. Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi was discontinued after an 18-year run.
And the biggest shift came in June. CBC and Sportsnet announced the public broadcaster would stop carrying NHL games, ending a partnership that dated back to 1952.
So where does that leave the Saturday tradition? In new hands, under a new name, with a panel that barely resembles the one fans grew up with.
TNT, meanwhile, is getting someone who already knows the job. In May, she called a second-round playoff game in Philadelphia with Alex Faust and, yes, Armstrong.
In February, NBC made her its inside-the-glass analyst for the women's tournament at the Milano-Cortina Olympics, alongside AJ Mleczko and Kenny Albert.
Friday's broadcast puts her next to John Forslund, reporter Lauren Jbara and, once again, Armstrong. Puck drop is 8 p.m. ET on TNT, truTV and HBO Max.
The matchup has some bite, too. Glen Gulutzan's Stars have won both preseason games, while John Hynes' Wild lost 4-3 past regulation in Chicago on Monday.
TNT is expected to lay out its full broadcast plans later this week. Until then, nobody knows which crew Botterill lands with or how many games she'll actually call.
Did Sportsnet make a mistake by moving on from Jennifer Botterill?
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