Darren Dreger (born June 13, 1968) is a Canadian sportscaster for TSN, and is one of TSN's Hockey Insiders. He had previously hosted '' Leafs Lunch'' on CFMJ AM640 Toronto Radio.

Broadcasting career

After graduating from the Western Academy Broadcasting College, Dreger was immediately offered a job from a radio station in Winkler, Manitoba. However, on the same day, he was offered another job closer to home, which he accepted. Beginning in 1992, Dreger lent his voice as a play-by-play announcer for the Brandon Wheat Kings. This lasted until 1993 when he was hired to replace Daren Millard at CTV Winnipeg. While there, he also conducted play-by-play for the

Manitoba Moose The Manitoba Moose are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg. They are the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets of the National Hockey League (NHL). The team plays its home games at Canada Life Centre. The fran ...

of the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league in North America that serves as the primary developmental league of the National Hockey League (NHL). The league comprises 32 teams, with 26 in the United States and 6 in Cana ...

. From Winnipeg, Dreger moved to Edmonton in 1997 to report on

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. Th ...

games and was subsequently hired by

Sportsnet Sportsnet is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language Discretionary service, discretionary sports broadcasting, sports specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media. It was established in 1998 as CTV Sportsnet, a joint venture betw ...

as a national host for their NHL package in 1998. Dreger was the former host of '' Hockey Central'' on Rogers Sportsnet between 1998 and 2006. On July 14, 2006, it was announced that Dreger would leave Sportsnet and join TSN on July 31, 2006, hence ' crossing the parking lot'. Dreger won a Gemini Award in 2010 in the Best Sports Reporting category for his coverage of the firing of NHLPA Executive Director Paul Kelly. He was the only reporter in Chicago when the news broke and therefore had sole coverage. In October 2014, Bob McKenzie and Dreger began appearing as a full-time contributors on NBCSN, until

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...

lost the NHL hockey rights to both

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

and Turner Sports in 2021. This was because TSN lost their NHL broadcasting rights package to

Personal life

Dreger was born in Red Deer, Alberta, and grew up in Saskatchewan. Dreger and his wife Holly have two children together, a son and a daughter.

References

External links

TSN profile

TSN adds Darren Dreger to hockey team

Wheat City Journal article on Darren Dreger
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dreger, Darren 1968 births Living people Canadian television sportscasters National Hockey League broadcasters People from Red Deer, Alberta Canadian radio sportscasters Canadian Screen Award winning sportscasters