- Most terms of a new Elliotte Friedman deal are agreed to with Rogers, per Jonah Sigel
- Sigel knocks down the idea that Amazon ever made a serious run at him
- Read below for where Kevin Bieksa sits with training camps less than two weeks out
Elliotte Friedman is staying at Sportsnet.
Toronto Star sports media reporter Jonah Sigel put out a fresh report Sunday morning on hockey’s most influential insider, and it took a hammer to the Amazon story that had been building all week.
“Sources: Elliotte vacationing overseas, most deal terms have been agreed to with Rogers. The notion Amazon had made a significant or serious offer is complete fiction. There may have been discussions but ‘Amazon wasn’t going to blow up their entire payroll for an insider.’”
Nothing has been signed. The framework is in place and the guy on the other end of it is out of the country, which is a very different picture than the one hockey fans were staring at 48 hours ago.
Friedman’s Sportsnet contract lapsed on Sept. 1 with nothing new signed, and reporting later in the week had Rogers balking at letting him work Amazon Prime’s midweek games. That was the version where Prime Video was a live threat to pry him away outright. Sigel says the money behind that threat never existed.
Losing him would have hurt more than any on-air departure Sportsnet has had in years. Friedman drives Headlines and the 32 Thoughts podcast, which is the reason plenty of people keep the network on between games. Here’s the Aug. 25 episode:
Kevin Bieksa is the loose end. His deal expired on the same day as Friedman’s and he has not re-signed either.
The former Canucks and Ducks defenseman won the Canadian Screen Award for best sports analyst three years in a row, and he already lives in Southern California, so a job with an American broadcaster would not require him to move anywhere.
Sportsnet has already moved on from Kelly Hrudey this offseason, and Jennifer Botterill is not expected back. Locking down Friedman keeps the most recognizable voice in the building. Bieksa is the name still sitting on the desk, and training camps open in under two weeks.
