Leah Hextall hails from a well-known hockey family, but she made her own mark on the industry.
Hextall became the first woman to call the NCAA men’s hockey title game for ESPN in 2019, and is she is now the first woman to serve as the play-by-play announcer for the nationally-televised NHL games. It’s a job she enjoys, Hextall told The Athletic’s Sean Fitz-Gerald, but it’s an industry that needs to change.
ESPN struck a seven-year deal to cover the streaming, media and television rights of the sport, and Hextall joined the crew last year. But as she navigated her first season, she says her social media accounts became overwhelmingly filled with criticism and abuse at a volume she had yet to see in her decade-plus career in sports media.
