List of Canadian Stanley Cup Finals television announcers

See also: Stanley_Cup_Finals § Broadcasting, List of Hockey Night in Canada commentators, and List of American Stanley Cup Finals television announcers

This is a list of Canadian Stanley Cup Finals television announcers.

Play-by-play

See also: List of Hockey Night in Canada commentators, La_Soirée_du_hockey § List_of_commentators, and Réseau_des_sports § Notable_personalities

Announcer	Years	Network(s)
Bob Cole	1980-2008	CBC
Danny Gallivan	1953-1960; 1965-1969-1971; 1973; 1975-1979	CBC
Richard Garneau	1986-1990	SRC
Bill Hewitt	1959-1964; 1967; 1970; 1972; 1974	CBC
Pierre Houde	2003-2014	RDS SRC
Jim Hughson	2009-present	CBC
Dan Kelly	1978-1980; 1985-1988	CBC CTV Global
René Lecavalier	1953-1985	SRC
Jacques Moreau	1973	TVA
Claude Quenneville	1991-2002	SRC
Jim Robson	1975; 1980; 1982-1983	CBC
Félix Séguin	2015-present	TVA
Don Wittman	1985-1986	CBC

Color commentary

Announcer	Years	Network(s)
Jean-Maurice Bailly	1953-1970	SRC
Michel Bergeron	1999-2002	SRC
Benoît Brunet	2009-2011	RDS
Keith Dancy	1953-1960; 1965-1966	CBC
John Davidson	1985-1988	CBC Global
Marc Denis	2012-2014	RDS
Gary Dornhoefer	1979-1985	CBC
Bob Goldham	1961-1964	CBC
Foster Hewitt	1959-1960	CBC
Dick Irvin Jr.	1967-1980; 1982; 1984; 1986; 1989; 1991-1994	CBC
Patrick Lalime	2015-present	TVS
Brian McFarlane	1967; 1970; 1972; 1974	CBC
Greg Millen	2007-2008	CBC
Harry Neale	1987-2007	CBC
Yvon Pedneault	2003-2008	RDS
Mickey Redmond	1981-1984	CBC
Ron Reusch	1985-1986	CTV
Craig Simpson	2009-present	CBC
Gilles Tremblay	1971-1998	SRC TVA
Mario Tremblay	1986	SRC

English-language networks

• CBC (1953-1971; 1973-present)
• CTV (1972; 1985-1986)
• Global (1987-1988)

CBC's coverage of Games 3, 4 and 5 of the 1954 Stanley Cup Finals were joined in progress at 9:30 p.m. (approximately one hour after start time). Meanwhile, CBC joined Game 6 in at 10 p.m. (again, one hour after start time). Game 7 was carried Dominion wide (nationwide) from opening the face off at 9 p.m. Since Game 7 was played on Good Friday night, there were no commercials (Imperial Oil was the sponsor).

The 1961 Stanley Cup Finals were almost not televised in Canada at all. At that time, the CBC only had rights to the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs' games; home games only during the season and all games in the playoffs. However, with both the Canadiens and Maple Leafs eliminated in the semi-finals, the CBC's worst nightmare became reality. The CBC had to conceive a way to carry the Finals between the Chicago Black Hawks-Detroit Red Wings or face public revolt. According to lore, the CBC found a way to link their Windsor viewers as having a vested interest in the Finals with the across the river Red Wings. Thus, CBC was able to carry the series after inking special contracts with the Red Wings and Black Hawks as a service to the Windsor market. From Windsor, CBC linked the signal to Toronto and they relayed the coverage Dominion-wide. From there, Canadians were able to see the Finals with nary a glitch in the coverage.

To accommodate the American TV coverage on NBC (1966 marked the first time that a Stanley Cup Finals game was to be nationally broadcast on American network television), Game 1 of the 1966 Stanley Cup Finals was shifted to a Sunday afternoon. This in return, was the first time ever that a National Hockey League game was played on a Sunday afternoon in Montreal. While Games 1 and 4 of the NBC broadcasts were televised in color, CBC carried these games and all other games in black and white.

The most commonly seen video clip of Bobby Orr's famous overtime goal ("The Flight") in Game 4 of the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals is the American version broadcast on CBS as called by Dan Kelly. This archival clip can be considered a rarity, since about 98% of the time, any surviving kinescopes or videotapes of the actual telecasts of hockey games from this era usually emanate from CBC's coverage. According to Dick Irvin Jr.'s book My 26 Stanley Cups (Irvin was in the CBC booth with Danny Gallivan during the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals), he was always curious why even the CBC prototypically uses the CBS replay of the Bobby Orr goal (with Dan Kelly's commentary) instead of Gallivan's call. The explanation that Irvin received was that the CBC's master tape of the game (along with others) was thrown away in order clear shelf space at the network.

In 1972, Hockey Night in Canada moved all playoff coverage from CBC to CTV to avoid conflict with the lengthy NABET strike against the CBC. Eventually, MacLaren Advertising, in conjunction with Molson Breweries and Imperial Oil/Esso, who actually owned the rights to Hockey Night in Canada (not CBC) decided to give the playoff telecast rights to CTV. Initially, it was on a game by game basis in the quarterfinals (Game 1 of the Boston-Toronto series was seen on CFTO Toronto in full while other CTV affiliates, but not all joined the game in progress. Game 1 of the New York Rangers-Montreal series was seen only on CFCF Montreal while Game 4 not televised due to a lockout of technicians at the Montreal Forum), and then the full semifinals and Stanley Cup Finals. Because CTV did not have 100% penetration in Canada at this time, they asked CBC (who ultimately refused) to allow whatever one of their affiliates were the sole network in that market to show the playoffs. As a result, the 1972 Stanley Cup playoffs were not seen in some of the smaller Canadian markets unless said markets were close enough to the United States border to pick up the signal of a CBS affiliate that carried Games, 1, 4, or 6 (Games 2, 3 and 5 were not nationally broadcast in the United States).

In 1980, Bob Cole, Dan Kelly and Jim Robson shared play-by-play duties for CBC's coverage. Cole did play-by-play for the first half of Games 1 and 2. Meanwhile, Kelly did play-by-play for the second half Games 1–5 (Kelly also did called the overtime period of Game 1). Finally, Robson did play-by-play for first half of Games 3 and 4 and Game 6 entirely. Except for Game 5, Kelly did play-by-play for the first period and first half Games 5, and Jim Robson play-by-play for the rest of Game 5. In essence this meant that Bob Cole or Jim Robson would do play-by-play for the first period and the first half of the second period. Therefore, at the closest stoppage of play near the 10 minute mark of the second period, Cole or Robson handed off the call to Kelly for the rest of the game.

In 1985, CBC televised Games 1 and 2 nationally while Games 3–5 were televised in Edmonton only. CTV televised Games 3–5 nationally while games were blacked out in Edmonton. Dan Kelly, Ron Reusch, and Brad Park called the games on CTV. In 1986, CBC only televised Games 1 and 2 in Montreal and Calgary. CBC televised Games 3–5 nationally. When CTV televised Games 1 and 2, both games were blacked out in Montreal and Calgary. Like in the year prior, Dan Kelly, Ron Reusch, and Brad Park called the games for CTV.

Unlike the split CTV/CBC coverage of 1984–85 and 1985–86, the Canwest-Global telecasts from 1986–87-1987–88 were network exclusive, except for Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals if they were necessary. When CBC and Global televised Game 7 of the 1987 Stanley Cup Finals, they used separate production facilities and separate on-air talent.

French-language networks

• RDS (2003–2011)
• SRC (1953–2002)
• TVA (1973; 2012–present)