Blackhawks replace Chris Vosters with Rick Ball in TV booth

Following in Hall of Fame broadcaster Pat Foley’s footsteps as the TV voice of the Chicago Blackhawks was never going to be easy for anyone. But that was especially the case for Chris Vosters, an out-of-the-box hire with a ton of energy and personality but limited hockey experience.

The Blackhawks hoped Vosters would grow into the job and fans would grow to love him. But after two seasons of neither happening at the Blackhawks’ preferred pace, the organization decided to reassess.

That evaluation led to the Blackhawks’ decision Thursday to remove Vosters and replace him with NHL veteran broadcaster Rick Ball as their new TV play-by-play broadcaster.

“One thing we know is that our fans value a deep hockey knowledge and experience, and it was important to us that our broadcast reflect those values,” said Blackhawks president of business Jaime Faulkner. “Every year after the season concludes, we evaluate our broadcast talent in the booth for both radio and TV, and also in-studio, to determine if it is at the level our fans expect and deserve. Based on our own evaluations, as well as feedback from key stakeholders and partners, we felt we need to make a change in this role.

“We knew it would be difficult to replace someone as loved and talented as Pat Foley when we first started the process three years ago. Of everyone we looked at and available at the time, Chris was the clear favorite, and we were convinced we had found our voice. Chris did a tremendous job calling Blackhawks games, and while it’s certainly unfortunate that it didn’t work out with him in the end, we’re confident that Rick is going to help our broadcast reach new heights and we’re excited for him to join the team.”

Hockey knowledge and experience weighed heavily into the Blackhawks’ decision to move on from Vosters and bring in Ball.

“Chris is a tremendous broadcaster with a very bright future ahead of him,” Faulkner said. “He has a very big voice that lends itself extremely well to being a sports broadcaster. We want to offer our fans a broadcast with deep experience and hockey knowledge. We evaluate things like depth of hockey vocabulary, ability to anticipate the play to use your voice to draw the viewer in, ability to call plays happening with players who don’t have the puck, and knowing that sometimes you don’t say anything at all.”

Ball, 57, checks all those boxes and brings an abundance of hockey and NHL broadcasting experience. He spent the last 10 years as a TV play-by-play broadcaster for the Calgary Flames on Sportsnet. He also previously worked for “Hockey Night in Canada” and called games for the Vancouver Canucks, Winnipeg Jets and the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets.

Ball described leaving Calgary and Flames fans as the hardest part of his decision, but the positives outweighed the negatives in joining the Blackhawks. Among those positives was Blackhawks TV color analyst Darren Pang, whom Ball has known for many years.

“When it was first presented to me, there were probably four main factors: Original Six franchise, world-class city, young superstar centerpiece in Connor Bedard and, last but not least, Darren Pang, who I consider one of the best all-time at his job,” Ball said. “So when you put those four things, it was a no-brainer.”

The Blackhawks had been keeping tabs on which broadcasters might be available around the NHL. They weren’t going to replace Vosters with just anyone, and he would have likely remained in the position for another season if the Blackhawks weren’t so enamored with Ball. Ball said his discussions with the Blackhawks began recently and came together quickly.

“Rick is an exceptional broadcaster with a resume that includes over 20 years of experience as a hockey announcer,” Faulkner said. “He’s called some of the sport’s biggest games, on its biggest stages, and on one of its most storied broadcasts. He knows this game and its history, and we believe he will take our broadcast to the next level.”

Ball’s hiring comes just days after the Blackhawks announced, along with the Chicago Bulls and White Sox, that they will leave NBC Sports Chicago when their broadcast contract expires and launch their own network, Chicago Sports Network, in October. Faulkner couldn’t provide any additional details on the network but said the Blackhawks’ priority now is to hire studio talent.

“Now that we have the booth set, our attention is going to be directed to the studio,” Faulkner said. “(In making those hires), hockey knowledge, some connection to the Blackhawks is important to us, energy is important. We are working on the criteria that is important to us because we will have the ability to decide who is in studio. Thankfully, we did have a lot of studio talent both in the host position and otherwise that had been very strong for us.”

(Photo: Jonathan Kozub / NHLI via Getty Images)