Plagens has been calling Panthers games since 2015 while Maurice is entering his second season with the Florida Everblades

It’s been a fun few days in Estero, Florida for the top young prospects from four NHL teams who are taking part in the 2023 Southeast Rookie Showcase.

The three-game-per-team round-robin is being hosted by the Florida Panthers at Hertz Arena, home to the Cats’ ECHL affiliate and back-to-back Kelly Cup Champion Florida Everblades.

This year all six games are being broadcast on the Panthers official website, with a familiar voice and a familiar name teaming up on the call.

Sharing play-by-play duties are Florida Panthers radio voice Doug Plagens and Florida Everblades broadcaster Jake Maurice.

Plagens is entering his ninth season with the Panthers while Maurice is preparing to start his second year in Estero.

In a chat with THN between showcase games, Maurice pointed out that he and Plagens have followed similar paths, with both getting their professional hockey broadcasting starts in the ECHL.

“He was in the same league as I was back when he was kind of my age with the Idaho Steelheads,” Maurice said. “He's been on a finals run, so a lot of the stuff I talk about with him, he knows it because he's actually lived all of it. He knows what it's like to be in this league, you're trying to get up to the next level, but also enjoying being in the ECHL. It's a very fun league.”

The showcase has become a great annual tradition that allows the top young, up-and-coming members of four franchises to showcase their talents in front of a broader audience, including many at the higher levels they’re hoping to reach.

“It's great to be able to see some of the stars of tomorrow, to be able to see guys early on in their pro hockey journeys,” said Plagens. “It’s great competition, and it’s a lot of fun for the fans here in southwest Florida.”

Over the course of the showcase, the broadcasting duo spilt their duties evenly, with Plagens doing play-by-play for the three Panthers games and Maurice calling the three non-Cats contests.

When they weren’t doing play-by-play, each acted as color commentator for the other, so they both were on the broadcast for all six games.

That meant tapping into something Plagens admitted he hadn’t done since his time at Lake Forrest College nearly two decades ago.

Before calling games for the Foresters, Plagens acted as the color man for play-by-play voice Brian Rea, who now works on the television broadcast for the NHL’s Dallas Stars.

“That was my first experience on a hockey broadcast, doing color for (Rea) when he was doing play-by-play,” Plagens explained.

For Maurice, the connection between affiliates has a bit more meaning behind it.

That’ll happen when your dad is the head coach of the affiliate NHL club.

It’s a big deal for any young broadcaster to get a job with a professional team and really begin your career, but when you get to share in that journey with your father, it’s another thing entirely.

“Being in the same organization as your dad is awesome,” Maurice said with a smile. “It helps our relationship grow in a lot of ways.”

It also gives him a leg up on some of his peers simply because he’s been around hockey his entire life and has had an NHL head coach around to give him a glimpse behind the curtain.

“I understand more interacting with a coach, growing up with one, and he understands how to interact with a broadcaster because now he's kind of been around one, so it helps with all of that stuff," said Maurice. 

Maurice said he talks to his dad often, and being able to not only share in their professional hockey journeys, but do it with the same organization, just adds to an already amazing experience.

“Every day I can talk to my dad, and we can talk about whatever," he said. "And having him right there across Alligator Alley too is a very, very important thing."