How did this role come about?
Richard Deitsch, senior media reporter: Hextall has been grinding toward this moment for a long time. She was profiled in 2020 by The Athletic as an emerging hockey voice to watch and earlier this year discussed the challenges of getting play-by-play reps as a freelance game caller during the pandemic.
She called college hockey for ESPN earlier this year, including Minnesota Duluth defeating North Dakota in five overtimes to reach the Frozen Four. The game lasted 142 minutes, 13 seconds of ice time and 6 hours, 12 minutes of real-time — breaking the NCAA Tournament record for longest game set by the Wisconsin and Harvard women in 2007.
How significant is the hire?
Deitsch: Hextall follows women such as Sherry Ross, Christine Simpson, Cassie Campbell-Pascall, Jennifer Botterill, A.J. Mleczko, Cammi Granato, Kendall Coyne-Schofield and Kathryn Tappen, among others, in pioneering roles in NHL broadcasting.
In 2018, Hall of Fame hockey broadcaster Mike Emrick told The Athletic he thought Hextall would be the first woman to do play-by-play for an NHL team.
“All I did was encourage her,” Emrick said. “(Hextall) has done some games in Canada and some Winnipeg Jets games from a booth up there. She is really good and she wants to do play-by-play. This is the avenue you take. It is just a matter of getting reps and practicing and doing it over and over again. I fully believe she will be a play-by-play announcer for a professional team and maybe eventually an NHL team because she is really good.”
(Photo: Vaughn Ridley / World Cup of Hockey via Getty Images)