Product Code Database
Leah Hextall (born ) is a Canadian sports journalist and ice hockey play-by-play broadcaster and reporter. In March 2020, she became the first woman to call play-by-play for a nationally televised NHL game as part of Sportsnet’s first all-female broadcast team. Hextall had previously made history as the first woman to call an NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship game, for ESPN at the 2019 tournament.
After being let go in 2016 amid larger organizational changes at Sportsnet, she became interested in expanding her skill set and, recognizing the dearth of women in play-by-play announcing in ice hockey, became invested in pursuing play-by-play. Encouraged by legendary NHL broadcaster Mike Emrick and the first female colour commentator on Hockey Night in Canada, Cassie Campbell-Pascall, both of whom she had worked with while in previous hosting roles, she began refining her announcing skills. Her television debut calling play-by-play was a four-game set of Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) games in January 2018. She returned to the role for the CWHL in January 2019, notably using the non-standard term "defencewoman" to refer to the defensive players. During that period, Hextall called games on the side, generally for free, including for the Brandon Wheat Kings of the Western Hockey League (WHL).
Hextall has a segment called "Hextall on Hockey," which airs weekly on the AM broadcasting radio station CJOB in Winnipeg and is rebroadcast by a number of stations across Canada. The under two-minute segments are united by the theme of ice hockey and, while the most frequent topic is the Winnipeg Jets, Hextall has used the segment to highlight issues within the hockey world, including sexism and other social injustices.
In May 2021, the New York Post reported ESPN had signed Hextall to the NHL on ESPN broadcast team as a play-by-play announcer and to "other posts" for the upcoming 2021–22 NHL season. The hiring, later confirmed by The Athletic, makes her "the first woman to hold a role as part of a national TV broadcast." ESPN removed her from NHL play-by-play duties following the 2022-23 season, but kept her as a rinkside reporter for select games, mainly with the #2 team of Bob Wischusen and Ryan Callahan. However, she does do play-by-play announcing for the NCAA women's ice hockey tournament.
Outside of hockey, Hextall hosted events at the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba Annual General Meeting in 2017 and served as a communications staffer for Brian Pallister's government in Manitoba between 2017 and 2020.
|
|
