There’s a fresh round of Hall of Fame chatter around Don Cherry, and the reaction is tangled up in everything that made him such a force in hockey in the first place. The former Boston Bruins coach and Hockey Night in Canada fixture left a massive imprint on the sport as a broadcaster, especially through “Coach’s Corner” on Saturday nights between periods. At the same time, his politics - specifically comments tied to immigrants - helped bring about his exit from HNIC on CBC in 2019.
By the standards of influence alone, Cherry makes a compelling case as a builder. But in today’s climate, that kind of vote would be a tough sell.
He was never just background noise; he was the guy who pulled the entire press box in Toronto out of their seats and into the corridor to watch him on a wall-mounted screen. The show was the point.
Sometimes it was about wondering whether he’d go too far. More often, it was just because he was flat-out entertaining.
Cherry also had another side that resonated in a very different way. He regularly honored fallen police officers and soldiers, and those moments hit hard.
A Foster Hewitt media award nod would make sense, even if it probably wouldn’t satisfy him. He has also had a connection to the award through the reminder that it was never meant to be limited to play-by-play voices.
On a personal note, the writer says he and Cherry were loose acquaintances, crossing paths on radio, speaking on the phone, and connecting through Cherry’s foreword for the Bruins book “Black and Gold.” They didn’t agree on everything away from the rink, but that was never the point. In this view, politics should not be part of the Hall of Fame conversation.
The hockey world also lost Peter Maher on Thursday. The former Calgary Flames play-by-play voice died at 79.
His trademark “Yeah baby” became part of his 33-season run, which started in 1980. Maher was honored with the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award in 2006, and in 2014 the press box at the Scotiabank Saddledome was named after him.
There was more sad news for Vancouver sports fans. Lloyd Robertson, who spent more than six decades in Canadian journalism and served as a national chief anchor for CTV News and CBC, died on August 4 at 92.
A week later, longtime sportscaster John McKeachie passed away at 82. Neither man called Canucks games, but both were well-known broadcast figures in the Vancouver market.
On the ice side, the first Seattle Kraken-Vancouver Canucks meeting of the fall is set for September 19 in the preseason, with a 6 pm start on a Saturday. It comes as part of a seven-game NHL slate.
The preseason is trimmed down to four games apiece, and it wraps on Saturday, September 26, when the Kraken visit the Canucks. In the week between, Seattle plays the Flames twice in split squad games, while Vancouver gets the Oilers once and the Flames once.
The regular season opens with an 84-game schedule and five games on Tuesday, September 29. One of those is the Hurricanes raising their Stanley Cup banner in Raleigh.
There’s also movement in Vancouver’s hockey operations department. The Canucks have hired Ryan Stewart as Director of Hockey Strategy and Player Evaluation and Adam Sergerie as a Pro Scout.
Stewart spent 16 years with the Chicago Blackhawks in a range of roles and was part of Stanley Cup wins in 2013 and 2015 before working the last four seasons as a Senior Advisor with the San Jose Sharks. Sergerie arrives from junior hockey, where he was most recently Director of Scouting for the Penticton Vees of the Western Hockey League.
Cammi Granato has stepped down as assistant general manager and will remain with the club as an advisor focused on amateur scouting. She joined the franchise in January 2022 after working for the Kraken as a pro scout.
Broadcast news in Vancouver includes a new four-year deal for John Shorthouse, who will continue as the team’s TV play-by-play voice on Sportsnet.
As for Seattle winger Eeli Tolvanen, he remains among the unsigned unrestricted free agents around the league. The 27-year-old Finn has drawn some recent interest, but the Kraken are not planning to circle back with an offer.
Tolvanen produced 67 goals and 72 assists in 288 games with Seattle after arriving on waivers from the Nashville Predators in late 2022. He also had eight points in 14 playoff games for the Kraken the following spring.
And for those keeping score on the trivia front: who led the Kraken and Canucks in penalty minutes last season, and what were the totals?
In Other News...
Kraken 1st-Round Pick Is Raising Expectations In A Big Way
Chase Reid has spent the stretch since Seattle took him in the 2026 first round building plenty of buzz, and it is easy to see why. The defenseman has drawn steady praise from hockey analysts for the way he skates, reads the ice and projects as a player who could eventually matter in a big way for the Kraken blue line. For a team always looking to strengthen its pipeline, Reid already looks like the kind of prospect fans can start following closely.
His next stop should only add to that attention. Reid is expected to suit up for Team USA at the upcoming IIHF World Junior Championship before heading to Michigan State in the fall, a path that puts him on two of the biggest stages available to a young player. He also carries a personal motivation with him, dedicating his play to his late grandfather, and that mix of talent, work ethic and purpose is a big part of why his ceiling is being talked about so openly. [Read more 🡒]