Erik Johnson joins ESPN’s Stanley Cup Final coverage

ESPN is sending Erik Johnson to Las Vegas for the middle portion of the Stanley Cup Final.

According to the network, Johnson will join its coverage for Games 3 and 4 in Vegas, where the Golden Knights host the Carolina Hurricanes. Per additional reporting from Braylon Breeze, Johnson will work the studio desk, conduct interviews, and contribute a variety of pieces throughout, essentially a bit of everything, though not as an in-game analyst on the broadcast itself.

That role remains Sean McDonough, Ray Ferraro, and Emily Kaplan, who have already had a memorable series to call. The ratings have reflected that. Game 1 drew 4.8 million viewers on ABC, the largest Stanley Cup Final Game 1 audience since 2019 and nearly double last year’s 2.4 million on TNT, building on a postseason in which first-round viewership was already up 68% year over year.

That can be attributed to Johnson as much as anyone. Hired last October, just two weeks after retiring following 17 NHL seasons — including 14 with the Colorado Avalanche, which culminated in a Stanley Cup in 2022 — he passed on a role in the Flyers’ front office to try his hand in the media. The transition has gone remarkably smoothly. Early in the season, Steve Levy told the Denver Gazette he believed Johnson was “a TV superstar waiting to happen,” and his work alongside play-by-play partner Bob Wischusen throughout the playoffs has done nothing to contradict that.