Kelly Hrudey has spent more than 20 years staring into television cameras worth tens of thousands of dollars, breaking down hockey plays for viewers with the kind of ease that comes from decades in the business.

So when he settled into his kitchen one evening, poured himself a glass of red wine and turned his gaze on something far smaller and cheaper — an iPhone — it was a piece of cake.

TAIT: Kelly Hrudey content with life post-Hockey Night in Canada Back to video

Too bad the cake didn’t have a sweeter taste to it.

Hrudey posted a one-minute, 43-second video on X last week the way he’s always appeared to us — smiling, unhurried, a man who has made a career out of steadying other people’s nerves.

But this time the words carried weight. He would not be back Saturday nights, he told the camera, not on the broadcast that used to wear the name Hockey Night in Canada like a birthright.

The news came just five days after Carolina lifted the Stanley Cup on the Sportsnet broadcast, on June 19 — a date that must now sit strangely in his memory, equal parts triumph and ending: the day Sportsnet informed Hrudey his contract wouldn’t be renewed.

“I debated whether to post anything at all,” he said, “but my wife Donna and I decided the night before to use my platform to inform everyone about my situation.”

Even goodbye, it seemed, was something he wanted to get right — measured, deliberate, a decision made........

© Edmonton Sun