Ron MacLean loses ‘Hometown Hockey,’ will return to ‘Hockey Night in Canada’

Ron MacLean says he will return to “Hockey Night in Canada” next season, but his weekly workload will be lighter, with Sportsnet confirming it has canceled “Rogers Hometown Hockey,” the show that hop-scotched the country for eight seasons.

It was not immediately clear what the cancelation meant for co-host Tara Slone, who did not return a message from The Athletic on Tuesday. A Sportsnet spokesperson said the network does not comment on personnel matters “out of respect for employee privacy.”

“There’s so much loss for some in this story,” MacLean said in an interview. “That’s first and foremost: I just think of those who are affected.”

Sportsnet launched “Hometown Hockey” after signing its landmark 12-year, $5.232-billion rights deal with the NHL in 2013. It was initially billed as a “celebration of the game,” with stops on the first tour ranging from Cole Harbour, N.S., to Prince George, B.C., and two dozen cities and towns in between.

It was initially part of the network’s Sunday schedule, though it has moved to Monday. Sportsnet will continue to carry a national broadcast package on Monday nights next season, but it is not clear what form it will take, or who might be in the chair.

MacLean, who was in a contract year this season, said he will be back, but on the weekends.

“I’ll be Saturday night, for sure,” he said. “That’s the one thing that I’ll sort of retain, and stay part of that.”

He said his new contract has not yet been finalized: “But we have it in — what is it they say? — in principle? For sure. We’re definitely committed to that.”

MacLean, 62, said he had been made aware of speculation he and the network might have been ready to part ways.

“I don’t know where that gets started,” he said. “But it’s just every year that it seems to find its legs, and every year, it’s not true. I can’t speak for Sportsnet, but I can speak from my end: I just think it’s an exciting time to be around the game.”

Sportsnet said “Hometown Hockey” was “retiring from the road” after making 160 stops across Canada over almost a decade on the air. The network spokesperson said “the time is simply right to bring it to a natural close and explore new broadcast opportunities, expand our storytelling capabilities and evolve the viewer experience.”

Network and industry sources who requested anonymity suggested the show, with its associated weekly festival, was an expensive line on the corporate ledger. While it offered political and marketing benefits in carrying the Rogers banner into towns across Canada, it became difficult to justify in an era of cuts.

And after making that many stops, some regions had already been spotlighted more than once.

“We had kind of maxed out,” said MacLean. “There is a truth in that. We had gone hither and yon, and I’m not sure it was going to be easy to generate a tour that was fresh.”

Sportsnet moved MacLean into the role after it named George Stroumboulopoulos as its new main host of Hockey Night. When the transition was announced in March 2014, four months after Sportsnet won its national NHL deal, it was seen as MacLean passing the torch.

“Don’t screw this up, it’s a big show,” MacLean said on the dais during the official media launch event, as Stroumboulopoulos chuckled. (A report in The Globe and Mail would later suggest Sportsnet had moved MacLean away from the marquee broadcast on Saturday night partly because of his “fractious relationship” with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.)

MacLean continued his work as co-host of “Coach’s Corner,” with Don Cherry, and traveled across the country for the new show on the weekends. He said fatigue was never an issue.

“You feed off the energy,” he said on Tuesday. “It’s like the Stanley Cup: It’s roughly 60 days, but there is the bedlam inside the building. Just the joy.”

Each week, he said the hosts would meet local officials, from politicians to hockey coaches. Sometimes they would shake hands and, as with a senior hockey team in Prince Rupert, B.C., they would tip a few adult beverages while talking shop.

“If you look at the Stanley Cup roster of Colorado, and the Canadian makeup of that team, we were in every town,” said MacLean. “All these little nooks and crannies of the country: We were there. You got to meet the parents, you got to hear who the coach was.”

In addition to her role as co-host, Slone, who is also lead singer of the Canadian rock band “Joydrop,” launched a new show for Sportsnet during the pandemic. In “Top of Her Game,” a 30-minute weekly interview program, Slone highlighted women who impacted sports on and off the field.

It was not immediately clear whether she will continue with the network. Sources indicated that some layoffs were taking place at Sportsnet on Tuesday.

The network spokesperson said Sportsnet would share its broadcast plans for Monday nights “closer to the start of the 2022-23 regular season.”

MacLean took a moment to look back at the show that was canceled.

“It was a chance to meet, one-to-one, with everybody who loves the game and kind of thinks of Saturday night as their night,” he said. “It was a really lucky thing to make it a first-hand experience instead of a second-hand experience. I was grateful for that.”

(Photo of Ron MacLean interviewing Marie-Philip Poulin: John E. Sokolowski / USA Today)