Paul Romanuk has called his last Leafs game for Hockey Night in Canada.
Sportsnet PR announced the move on Twitter Thursday saying “Paul Romanuk has elected to move on to a new challenge. We consider Romanuk to be one of the top play-by-play announcers in the game and we will miss his contributions to our coverage.”
John Bartlett will be Sportsnet’s new regional play-by-play voice for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and call select national broadcasts. The move marks Bartlett’s return to Ontario from Montreal where he’s been calling Montreal Canadiens’ English-language broadcasts for TSN radio and TV, since 2011.
Romanuk, 57, did NHL play-by-play for the NHL on TSN from 1989 to 2001, and prior to 1994 was the secondary TSN hockey play-by-play voice behind Jim Hughson.
In spring 2001, Romanuk left TSN after 14 years, to co-host morning drive on the short-lived Team 1050 (CHUM-AM) Toronto, and then did a brief play-by-play stint with The Fan 590 (CJCL-AM) calling Toronto Raptors broadcasts.
In 2005, Romanuk and his wife, an executive with Coca-Cola, moved to London, England.
Romanuk continued to freelance for the Canadian networks covering international sporting events. He returned to North America four years ago when Sportsnet retained the NHL broadcasting rights in Canada.
“I can’t thank Sportsnet and Rogers enough for allowing me to live out a boyhood dream of calling games on Hockey Night in Canada,” Romanuk said in a statement. “To my friends and colleagues, thanks for four incredible years. You’re the best at what you do. The time is right for me to move on to a new challenge in the big wide world. I’ll miss it more than words can say, but, as words say: ‘That’s life.’”
