New Penguins TV reporter Hailey Hunter makes a name for herself

May 03, 2024

The last name is hers, but not really.

After concluding several years ago that she probably wouldn’t make the cut for the LPGA Tour, Hailey Hrynewich kicked around some easier-to-say surnames with friends, just in case her broadcast journalism degree was put to use. None of their suggestions felt like a fit until she heard “Hunter.”

That’s how this daughter of a former NHL player began a career that has brought her to the same city where her dad realized his dream.

A day after sharing that story, along with others about her twin brother Reed, who has an impressive athletic background to match hers, Hunter took a break from watching one of the Pittsburgh Penguins’ earliest training camp practices. A new TV reporter for the team’s newly acquired network in one of the league’s strongest markets, she was cramming to learn about players on tryout contracts — something that might have interested only her.

“She’ll know her facts, that much I promise,” Susan Hrynewich said of her daughter. “She was telling us about players we’d never heard of while we were moving her into her new place.”

For all the information about Hunter that’s easy to find by a quick Google search, her mother is often omitted from the stories.

So, not long after wrapping up a 20-minute phone interview, Hunter had more to say.

“Even when I was a kid competing in stuff, people wrote stories about me and my dad, or me and my brother,” Hunter said. “And, well, I don’t think my mom gets enough credit.”

Hunter has a good bit of Dan Potash in her: She’s genuine and kind.

And when the job requires bringing out the personalities of hockey players — no easy task — decency and sincerity are practically a prerequisite. Hunter, as Potash did before her for 19 years, has already shown a gift for developing an earnest connection with whomever she interviews.

That, too, is something she picked up from her mother.

“Hailey has always been herself, it didn’t matter what she was involved in,” Susan Hrynewich said. “I’d like to think I’m like that, but that’s for someone else to say.”

Added Reed Hrynewich: “Mom is like that. She’s just her in every setting. Hailey gets that from her, absolutely.”

“What you see is what you get,” Susan Hrynewich said of Hunter. “It’s why I always thought she’d end up doing what she’s doing.”

A career in broadcasting wasn’t necessarily a backup plan for Hunter. At her high school in Muskegon, Mich., she co-anchored the morning announcements (at mom’s urging). Her college, Ohio University, boasts a highly regarded journalism program.

But she also was the captain of her collegiate golf team. She aspired to be one of the athletes on TV, and she spent a year taking her best shots.

“It’s something I’d like someone to do a more in-depth documentary on,” Hunter said of life for an aspiring pro golfer. “It’s hard financially. I didn’t realize how hard it was, actually.

“When I graduated, I was playing really well, but I found out it costs between $80,000 and $100,000, actually, to try playing in the tournaments. And you don’t have time to have a full job because you’re playing a full schedule. There’s a couple of mini-tours, and if you work your way, there’s thousands of girls going out, and only about 50 actually get their card.”

Working at a golf course in Florida so she could get time on the tees wasn’t an epiphany. Rather, it was one of just many signals Hunter felt were pushing her toward the profession for which she went to college.

That pleased her mother, who stressed academics to a couple of children gifted with their dad’s athleticism.

“I don’t know if many of my children’s friends know that much about my husband playing hockey,” Susan Hrynewich said. “I’m sure they know. But where we live, he’s not seen as being a former hockey player.

“Actually, we’re both probably known around here as being Hailey and Reed’s parents.”

Tim Hyrnewich played in parts of two seasons for the Penguins. Those were in the early 1980s, a dark period for even a twice-bankrupt franchise. He was in Pittsburgh before Mario Lemieux arrived, when the Penguins had more of a cult following.

His coach was Eddie Johnston, a man Scott Bowman once said, “has one of hockey’s greatest minds.” Of course, as Bowman lovingly but quickly added, “The trouble is understanding him.”

Johnston speaks as Connor McDavid skates — very, very, very fast. His accent is a delicious blend of French-Canadian with swirls of Boston and Pittsburgh, sometimes sounding as if he’s inventing words.

Or, in the case of Hrynewich, he created a last name.

There’s an inside joke of a story among reporters that covered the Penguins when Hrynewich played. During one practice, Johnston kept referring to him as “Ha-RIN-de-chuck,” but Hrynewich never picked up on it. So, unbeknownst to him 40-some years later, the mispronounced surname stuck, even if Hrynewich didn’t stick around for Lemieux’s arrival in 1984.

Hrynewich’s second and final NHL season was the one in which the Penguins were so bad (38 points in 80 games) they landed the top pick that became Lemieux.

“I loved Pittsburgh while I was there; I’d have liked to be there longer,” Hrynewich said, laughing. “It’s where I made it in the NHL. But when Hailey went into broadcasting, I’d be lying if I said there was a thought maybe she’d end up in Pittsburgh, too.”

Hailey Hunter and her twin brother, Reed, as children. (Courtesy of Susan Hrynewich)

Hunter was essentially a rink rat growing up, mostly because her brother played hockey. She opted for figure skating, but it proved impossible to not pick up something from hockey given its ties to her dad and brother.

“I guess you could say it’s in her blood,” Hrynewich said. “But we never pushed our children into anything. Their mom made sure school was a priority. When it came to athletics, they were free to do what they loved.

“But as it’s turned out, hockey’s been a big part of their lives too. That wasn’t any plan, though.”

A competitive skater until age 10, Hunter was drawn to golf. The sunshine, she joked, didn’t hurt.

Despite her success on the links (she’s a low-digits handicap), the colder sports have karmically called to her since she traded clubs for a microphone. Hunter did pregame interviews with New York Islanders players during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. She then jumped at an unexpected opportunity to work the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, which required her to quarantine for a month before traveling across the world on her own to eventually cover moguls, aerials and the snowboard and ski cross events.

“I wasn’t surprised she did it; she recognized it was the chance of a lifetime,” Reed Hrynewich said. “That doesn’t mean I wasn’t incredibly impressed. It’s the Olympics, right? And it’s during a pandemic.

“She’d never say it was courageous. But, you know, a lot of reporters didn’t go because of what was going on in the world. She was still mostly new in her career. She doesn’t know anybody. She’s just going and doing it.

“But that’s my sister. She just goes and does it.”

Hunter hadn’t completely cooled on golf despite turning to broadcasting. She worked for the Golf Channel from June 2022 to September 2023, a run that ended only because of a job she might’ve been predestined to get.

This past summer, Fenway Sports Group, which owns the Penguins, started a cable network to replace AT&T SportsNet in Pittsburgh. The transition included shaking up the TV broadcast crew.

Hunter landed an audition, and executives from NESN, a regional sports network throughout New England that is also owned by FSG, quickly recognized the fit.

Matt Volk, a chief operating officer with NESN and SportsNet Pittsburgh, said Hunter showed a “superior depth of knowledge of not only the Penguins team but hockey generally.” Other traits that Hunter displayed were her “energy, ideation for content concepts” and, Volk stressed, an “ability to seamlessly ask next-level questions.”

Working closely during camp with Potash, who was promoted to the role of studio host for Penguins broadcasts, Hunter acquainted herself with some of the Penguins’ brightest stars, including captain Sidney Crosby and new addition Erik Karlsson. By the second day of camp, she showed no hesitation in approaching a player after a group interview to ask follow-up questions.

Hers was a new face. But a friendly one, too.

Potash is beloved among the longest-tenured Penguins and viewers alike. He’s carved out a spot in the Pittsburgh sports media pantheon, his tenure coinciding with the beginning of the Crosby era. Stepping into his shoes is no easy task.

Players trust Potash, and Hunter had about a week to start forming her own bonds before the Penguins’ first preseason games were televised.

“She’s very similar to Dan — comes in here, knows what she’s doing and looking for, asks the right questions,” Bryan Rust said.

“It is a skill to be able to know not just what to ask, but who to ask. It’s something that — I don’t know what you call it — but she does it well.”

Hailey Hunter as a child with her mom and dad. (Courtesy of Susan Hrynewich)

Hunter has a passion for empowering women, especially in her chosen field. She arrived in Pittsburgh at a time when more women are working in the market’s sports media than possibly ever.

At some point, Hunter said she intends to create a podcast or show — a space where women who’ve broken into the so-called boys club can share their experiences.

Upon learning of that idea, Susan Hrynewich choked up, saying that Hunter is “obviously very pretty, and she’s had a lot of early success, but…

“Hailey’s a good person,” Hrynewich said. “I think once people in Pittsburgh get used to her, they’ll like that the most about Hailey.”

As for the last name she chose instead of her own — well, there’s a story to that, too — a fairly simple one.

“I didn’t think there was any way people would be able to say or spell my actual last name. That’s how the ‘Hunter thing’ happened,” she said with a smile. “But now that I know that story about my dad, I think it confirms I was right.”

(Top photos courtesy of SportsNet Pittsburgh and Susan Hrynewich)

ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57k3JucW9kbnxzfJFsZmpoX2d9cLTAoqOesV2dwq%2FAxKtkqZ2enMKqutJo