Sportsnet ends yet another beloved Hockey Night in Canada tradition after 18 seasons

The news broke Thursday when it was confirmed that the Punjabi language broadcast, a fixture of Canadian hockey coverage since it launched, will not return.

For nearly two decades, the Punjabi broadcast gave South Asian hockey fans a way to watch the game in their own language, and it became a launching pad for Harnarayan Singh, whose energetic calls turned him into a household name well beyond the Punjabi speaking community.

This cancellation does not happen in a vacuum.

It comes on the heels of Sportsnet and the CBC parting ways entirely on NHL coverage starting next season, ending a twelve year sublicensing arrangement that let the games air on public television.

Piece by piece, the broadcast footprint that used to define Saturday nights in Canada keeps shrinking, and now one of its most groundbreaking offshoots is gone too.

Singh broke barriers as the first Sikh broadcaster to call an NHL game in English, and the Punjabi edition he helped build gave a real platform to a fan base that had rarely seen itself represented in hockey media.

Losing that voice feels like losing more than just a broadcast slot.

Reaction online has been swift and mostly frustrated, with many longtime viewers calling this yet another example of a Canadian institution getting quietly phased out as the league's television landscape shifts toward streaming and consolidation.

There is no word yet from Sportsnet on whether any version of the broadcast could return in another form down the line.

For now, though, the door appears closed on an 18 year chapter that meant a great deal to a lot of hockey fans across Canada.

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