June 14, 2023
The Golden Knights won, the Stanley Cup was awarded, and with that, Keith Jones' broadcasting duties are done.
He's now fully on to his job as the Flyers' president of hockey operations, but not without some parting words from the Great One.
"To Jonesy, good luck to you, man," Wayne Gretzky said on the TNT broadcast as the Vegas players took their laps with the Cup. "We're all gonna miss you, and we know you're gonna do a great job in Philadelphia. I know Mr. Snider's looking down and he knows he got the right guy to do that job. Good luck to you, Jonesy."
Jones and Gretzky both joined TNT two years ago when the network secured a long-term deal for the NHL's broadcasting rights. As one of the holdovers from NBC Sports, Jones signed on as an ice-level analyst, and Gretzky, as hockey's greatest ever, latched on as an in-studio analyst for a broadcast team that quickly grew to be regarded as the league's best.
.@WayneGretzky tells new @NHLFlyers President Keith Jones (the late team owner) “Ed Snider is looking down and he has the right guy to do the job!” as @GoldenKnights hoist the #StanleyCup2023 #Flyers pic.twitter.com/vxBSGOmOKL
— Ike Richman (@Ike_Richman) June 14, 2023
The Flyers announced Jones' hiring as the president of hockey ops in the thick of the Stanley Cup Playoffs last month, and even though he was already acting in the role, he was also intent on finishing out the season with TNT.
He continued to travel and cover games all the way up to the final horn of Game 5 Tuesday night in Vegas, all while going back and forth on the phone with Flyers general manager Danny Brière on the plans for the team's rebuild, which included input on the recent three-team deal that shipped out Ivan Provorov and brought back the 22nd overall pick in the draft later this month.
"Keith was great," Brière said after the trade was made. "We're probably on the phone four or five times a day, and to go in deeper with that, it's been pretty amazing. [Flyers governor] Dan Hilferty was kept in the loop, Keith Jones was kept in the loop the whole time and brought in some good ideas, [head coach] John Tortorella (too)...
"Everybody was involved. It was definitely a team-oriented trade that we came up with, so pretty exciting how the team came together."
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