NHL's name game not so easy today

October 02, 2026

Bruce Penton

Key points from this story:

• Foster Hewitt and Danny Gallivan were broadcasters
• NHL consists of 32 teams today
• Seven NHL teams are in Canada
• Canadian players make up 42 percent
• American players make up 28 percent
• Players come from many countries globally

For younger readers who may not have heard of Hewitt or Gallivan, they were the radio/TV voices a number of decades ago of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens respectively. In 1960, the National Hockey League consisted of six teams -- Chicago Blackhawks, Boston Bruins, Detroit Red Wings and New York Rangers joining the aforementioned Habs and Leafs in a compact league located in a tiny geographical section of North America.

Since almost all of the players in 1960 were Canadian (the odd American was sprinkled into some of the teams' rosters), doing play-by-play wasn't too difficult. Hull, Richard, Howe, Kelly, Duff, Beliveau, Bathgate, Moore . . . easy on the tongues of the broadcasters.

Today, of course, the NHL consists of 32 teams, seven in Canada and 25 in all corners of the United States. Canadian players make up the largest percentage (42 per cent), with Americans next at 28 per cent. If a country has ice, it's likely it has a player or two in the NHL and today, Sweden, Russia, Finland, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Belarus, Latvia, Norway, Austria, Slovenia, France and Australia (yes, Australia -- Jordan Spence of Ottawa and Nathan Walker of St. Louis) -- are represented on NHL rosters.

Which brings us back to Hewitt and Gallivan, who rarely had to deal with tongue-twisting names as they described the play. Alex Delvecchio, Jerry Toppazzini and Eric Nesterenko may have been three of the more difficult names to pronounce 66 years ago, but today, whoa!

A broadcaster doing a game between Edmonton and Washington, for instance, might describe a scrum featuring Ivan Miroshnichenko of the Capitals and Shakir Mukhamadullin of the Oilers; the Xhekaj brothers, Arber and Florian of Montreal, might be battling for the puck in the corner against Michael Brandsegg-Nygard of Detroit and by the time the announcer told his audience the names of the combatants, the puck would likely be at the other end of the ice.

Not all the tongue-twisting names of NHLers are from across the ocean. Shayne Gostisbehere of Carolina was born in Florida; Zeev Buium of the Canucks grew up in San Diego; and Luca Del Bel Belluz is a good ol' Canadian boy, from Woodbridge, Ont.

Hewitt and Gallivan were true professionals, but even they might occasionally stumble over players' names such as Marat Khusnutdinov of Boston, Mikael Pyyhtia of Columbus, Alex Nedeljkovic of San Jose and Bokondji Imama of Florida.

Scanning the rosters of NHL teams is an enjoyable exercise. You'll find Daniil But of Utah ... but what? You'll find Jaroslav Chmelar of the Rangers, convinced that the vowels in his name are in the wrong places. And you'll find that Oliver Okuliar of Pittsburgh is the only player in the league whose initials are O.O.

There are wonderful name of players in the leagues but my favourite is Amadeus Lombardi of Nashville. With a name like that, it makes perfect sense that he plays in Music City, U.S.A.

Sports Comments

- Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, on Tony Romo's early talent as a football analyst: "It was like watching the game with your best friend, if your best friend happened to be the former Dallas Cowboys star quarterback with a tinge of 'Oz the Mentalist.'"

- Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun: From the Did-You-Know department: "Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito was the bat boy for the Milwaukee Brewers when they went to the World Series in 1982."

- Greg Cote of Miami on his substack: "I love that this World Series is not all about money as most are now including the past two straight wins by the Lo$ Angele$ Dodger$."

- Jayson Stark of The Athletic, on the Brewers' starting rotation: "Has any team won a World Series with a starting rotation that was mostly just the nightly warm-up act for its bat-smothering relief crew?"

- Super 70s Sports: "Nothing craps on the 'we must have a salary cap' narrative like Milwaukee and Tampa Bay in the World Series."

- Another onion.com headline: "LeBron James Squeezes Eyes Shut To Avoid Catching Glimpse Of Philadelphia During Commute"

- Headline at fark.com, about the LIV golf tour: "Bankrupt Bonesaw Tour apparently isn't too bankrupt to give its CEO a $6 million golden parachute"

- Another fark.com headline: "NFL commissioner Roger Goodell identifies Tokyo as the next target. Weren't Nagasaki and Hiroshima enough?"

- New York Post, on Shohei Ohtani's desire to do double duty next year as a 33-year-old: "But no athlete has ever defeated the calendar, and this season provided the tangible evidence that Ohtani won't be an exception to the rule."

- Steve Simmons again: "The part of baseball I don't like ... likely Cy Young Award winner Jacob Misiorowski goes five innings in Game 1 against Tampa Bay and people want to give him a purple heart for his bravery. And I wonder what Jack Morris thinks of all of that."