Longtime ESPN Hockey Analyst Barry Melrose Retires After Parkinson’s Diagnosis
Barry Melrose, who has served as an NHL analyst at ESPN for nearly three decades and coached Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings to the Stanley Cup Final in 1993, has retired from the network after a Parkinson’s diagnosis.
“I’ve had over 50 extraordinary years playing, coaching and analyzing the world’s greatest game, hockey,” Melrose, 67, said in a statement. “It’s now time to hang up my skates and focus on my health, my family, including my supportive wife Cindy, and whatever comes next.”
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His longtime friend and network colleague John Buccigross had revealed the news on social media — hours before the 2023-24 NHL season begins.
“Barry Melrose has Parkinson’s disease and is stepping away from our ESPN family to spend more time with his,” Buccigross wrote on X/Twitter. “I’ve worked with Barry at ESPN for over a quarter century. Cold beers and hearty laughs in smokey cigar bars. A razor sharp wit, he was always early & looked like a million bucks. I love him. I’ll miss him.”
His post also includes a long video tribute to Melrose featuring Gretzky, who played three seasons under him.
“My friend Barry Melrose, he’s bigger than any team,” The Great One says in the clip of the man long known for his natty attire. “For decades he’s been suiting up — and I mean suiting up — for the game, for the sport, for hockey. … You see, hockey is more than a game, it’s a community, a finely tuned orchestra, and Barry was our conductor.
Known for his big smile, bigger personality and signature mullet, Sports Emmy winner Melrose first joined ESPN in 1994 and reported on every Stanley Cup Final for the network since. He began a full-time role at the Worldwide Leader in October 1996, two seasons after he left the Kings. He appeared regularly on SportsCenter and also called regular-season and playoff games for ESPN and ABC Sports from 2000-02 and provided studio analysis for ABC Sports’ NHL telecasts from 2003-04.
Before that, he coached the Kings to the team’s first Stanley Cup Final, in Gretzky’s fifth season with the team after his game-changing 1988 trade from the Edmonton Oilers. The Kings took a 1-0 series lead on the road against Patrick Roy and the Montreal Canadiens and led Game 2 late in the third period before Marty McSorley took a penalty for playing with an illegal stick. The Habs would score to tie the game before winning it in overtime. Montreal also won the next two games in OT and closed out the championship in Game 5. No Canadian team has won the Stanley Cup since.
Melrose began his coaching career in the minor leagues in 1987, leading teams to Memorial Cup and Calder Cup trophies. Many years later, be left ESPN to becoming head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2008-09.
“Barry is a unique, one-of-a-kind person,” NHL Commissioner Bettman said. “And hockey on ESPN won’t be the same without him. … His love for hockey is obvious and infectious. And it is impossible to have a conversation with him without a smile on your face.
The Canada-born Melrose also played 11 seasons in the NHL for Winnipeg and Original Six teams Toronto and Detroit after three seasons in the WHA.
“I’m beyond grateful for my hockey career, and to have called ESPN home for almost 30 years,” Melrose added. “Thanks for the incredible memories and I’ll now be cheering for you from the stands.”
Melrose also dabbled in acting, playing himself in Mystery Alaska, the 1999 feature about a small-town hockey club playing the NHL’s New York Rangers, and guested as himself in a 2001 episode of ABC’s Michael J. Fox sitcom Spin City and appeared in the 2002 sequal Slap Shot 2: Breaking the Ice.