The Hockey Hall-of-Famer steps away from the Seattle booth to prioritize family, concluding a beloved partnership with John Forslund while continuing his duties across national NHL broadcasts.
Kraken Hockey Network analyst and on-air personality Eddie Olczyk will not be returning to the Kraken booth for the 2026 season. The right-hand man of play-by-play announced John Forslund announced on Jul 28th that he will be hanging up his headset in order to spend more time with his family in Chicago.
After a 16 season career in the NHL, including a trip to the Olympics with Team USA, Olczyk spent time coaching in Pittsburgh before beginning his career as an analyst. He joined the Kraken broadcast team in the franchise’s second season in 2022. Speaking on the decision, Olczyk remarked that he’s “done the same schedule for the last 20 years…it just comes to a point where you have to make a decision. It’s been in the making, and I just thought this was the time that I wanted to be home more.”
The Hockey Hall-of-Famer thinks highly of his time in Seattle, and of the crew he had the opportunity to work with, “it still always comes down to relationships, especially with the game crew who you spend so much time with on the road. With JT (Brown), he’d played with my oldest son, so I had a relationship with him. But there was also getting to develop a relationship with Piper (Shaw) and then of course working with Johnny (Forslund). There’s nobody better in the game that is a play-by-play guy, and I got to sit next to him.”
For their parts, his broadcast partners understood his decision and admit he will be missed on the air. Color analyst JT Brown had “nothing but good things to say about him,” remarking on having the opportunity to learn from one of the best in the business, and admitting that he would miss the on-air tag-team of Olczyk/Forslund. “I couldn’t even understand what they were talking about most of the time,” he said with a laugh. “But you clearly have to respect him for making this decision and doing what he feels is best for himself and those closest to him.”
At this point, Olczyk plans to continue his work in national broadcasting but is looking forward to spending then majority of his time at home with his family.
