Amazon Snag in Elliotte Friedman Sportsnet Contract Talks

Elliotte Friedman is close to re-signing with Sportsnet. The holdup is Amazon.

Rob Longley of the Toronto Sun reported Friday that hockey’s most influential insider is inching toward a deal to stay on as Sportsnet’s lead voice. Rogers, though, does not want him also working Amazon Prime’s midweek games, an assignment that would not appear to step on anything he does for Sportsnet.

Others familiar with the talks told Longley not to write off Amazon as a real threat to sign him outright.

Friedman and Kevin Bieksa both saw their Sportsnet contracts lapse on Sept. 1 with nothing new signed. Sports media reporter Jonah Sigel had flagged it two days earlier:

Bieksa is stuck in the same holding pattern, and the same Sun report says the former Canucks and Ducks defenseman has entertained opportunities to work in the United States. He already lives in Southern California, so the Toronto commute was never doing him any favors.

Nothing looked imminent as of Friday morning.

Longley’s reporting also has Ron MacLean quietly signing a one-year deal to stay in the national picture, and the top game tandem of Chris Cuthbert and Craig Simpson agreeing to two more years. Kelly Hrudey said last month that Sportsnet was letting him go, and Jennifer Botterill is expected to shift to Monday nights.

Rogers is doing all of this haggling right as it begins a 12-year, $11 billion contract that makes it the NHL’s exclusive national rights holder in Canada. The Saturday show no longer carries the Hockey Night in Canada name, either.

Losing Friedman would cost Rogers more than a talking head. It would cost them 32 Thoughts, the column and podcast that sets the agenda for a big chunk of the hockey internet every single week.

Training camps open in a couple of weeks and Rogers still has two of its biggest hockey names unsigned.