Blackhawks broadcaster Caley Chelios paving her own path in NHL

The origin of Caley Chelios’ path to becoming an NHL broadcaster is up for family debate.

Her father, Chris Chelios, has one memory of it.

“I remember the day,” Chris said. “We were watching Kathryn Tappen, and Caley literally said, ‘That’s what I want.’ She said, ‘I’d like to do that. I’d love to be in her position.’”

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Chelios recalls it another way.

“We were at dinner one day, and he was like, ‘You should do that,’” Chelios said.

Ultimately, where it all began doesn’t matter. What matters is Chelios began thinking of her future differently that day. She had played lacrosse at Northwestern University for four years and was graduating with a communications degree, but she wasn’t really sure what she wanted to do. She had a job offer from Merrill Lynch, but that wasn’t too appealing.

The idea of doing something in hockey was. She had played through high school and grew up around the game with her father being a Hall of Fame player in the NHL. She loved thinking and talking about hockey.

She hoped to someday become an NHL studio host or a sideline reporter. Those were what she believed were realistic options as a woman. She could never have dreamed of becoming an analyst like she has for the Chicago Blackhawks.

“I wanted to be a production assistant for NBC Sports Chicago, and I thought in a few years, once I get my feet wet, maybe I’ll come back and I can be a sideline reporter for the Blackhawks,” Chelios said. “And so looking at (being 30 years old) with almost three kids and being an analyst and having an opportunity for my voice to be heard on a level I never thought was going to happen, it’s pretty surreal.”

Chelios knows what some people think about her and how she got to where she is. First off, she doesn’t blame them.

“I feel like you always hear nepotism comments, and I totally get it,” Chelios said. “I always thought to myself, if I didn’t do this because of what other people think of me wanting to pursue a career in hockey, then I can’t worry about what other people think. And it’s easy to say, I always think about it. Like, I always feel like I need to earn more every day.

“I understand the advantage of having a name like that. But I feel like my dad has also taught me the value and importance of work ethic.”

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Chelios began putting in the work once she decided on a broadcasting career. She went to journalism graduate school at Northwestern. She described that year as “intensive” and “really hard.” She was humbled by it, but she learned all the aspects of journalism from writing stories to being on camera to interviewing people. Most importantly, she enjoyed it all.

“It didn’t feel like work, so I think that was the most reassuring thing,” Chelios said. “I wasn’t awesome at writing. I wasn’t the best on camera either at all. But I still enjoyed what I did every day.”

And like other journalism majors, she applied anywhere and everywhere out of school. She received a lot of rejection letters and never heard back from other places. She eventually landed a digital reporter job with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Chelios was with the Lightning for a few seasons when she got her first crack in the broadcasting booth. She did a prospect game alongside play-by-play broadcaster Dave Mishkin and then was given a longer trial during the NHL preseason. The Lightning liked what they heard and decided to give her more opportunities. Mishkin broadcasted on the radio with Phil Esposito for home games, but Esposito didn’t travel, so there was an opening for Chelios.

Mishkin and Chelios recognized her broadcasting ability was raw, especially on the radio where color commentators have to be in and out with their analysis. To help Chelios sharpen that, Mishkin would ask her after every period what she saw in the game and they’d talk it through.

“Generally, I’m hands-off; I kind of let the analysts do what they need to do and I don’t get in the way,” Mishkin said. “With Caley, I can tell after those early few games, that it was a little bit different. To be perfectly honest, she was probably the youngest analyst I had ever worked with, because usually I worked with former players who were retired and they were older than 24, 25. I was very well aware of what came with this opportunity for her — young, female, working in the NHL, kind of new to this, not to hockey, she comes from hockey royalty, but this position was definitely something different. She hadn’t been working in the minors like I had for 11 years. I got the sense she wanted feedback.”

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Chelios did and looks back at those talks as being priceless to her broadcast development. Chelios was getting in her analyst reps on the air and in the air.

“We had our longest conversations on the plane after the game,” Mishkin said. “Look, she could look at a play. This is probably something she grew up with. She played hockey, her brothers played hockey, her dad obviously played hockey. She had it in her and she could look at a play and say that’s what a defenseman did wrong or that forward did well or a mistake was made here. What we worked on more was like flow of play. Like, what do you see? Like, how was this team able to out-shoot the other team two to one or what did they do well? Or this team actually out-shot the other team 14-7, but how many of those 14 shots were garbage shots? Like, do the stats really tell you what was happening and why?

“She understood what she was seeing. She just needed to say it in a way that sounded good on the air. I don’t know how many times I would say to her, ‘I understand what you’re saying, put a bow on it, put a bow on this thing. Short, crisp, concise to the point.’ And I think she improved, if that’s the right word, dramatically. But she was coming from a very high starting point.”

Chelios assumed she was putting her broadcasting career on hold when she decided to resign from the Lightning in 2021.

She and her family decided to move to the Chicago area. Her husband Danny Vitale had retired from the NFL in June 2021. They had their first child in April 2020 and Chelios was due with her second in the fall of 2021.

But just as she thought her broadcasting career would have to wait, an unexpected opportunity changed that. Adam Rogowin, then the Blackhawks vice-president of communications, was familiar with Chelios and her work, and he brought Chelios to the attention of Blackhawks president of business Jaime Faulkner as the organization was looking to add to its broadcast and content team.

“We had listened to her,” Faulkner said. “I was just like, she’s great, let’s talk to her, let’s see if she’d be willing to work for us.”

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Chelios jumped at the chance.

“I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do both (work and have children),” said Chelios, who is due to have her third child in February. “I was definitely convinced I would just wait to have kids in my 30s when it made more sense because we’re both still in our careers. So, it’s been awesome. Now we have our family here, and this was like kind of my dream job when I first got out of grad school to work for the Blackhawks and now I’m here.”

Chris Vosters and Caley Chelios recently worked together calling games on TV for the Blackhawks. (Courtesy of the Blackhawks)

The Blackhawks have used Chelios in an assortment of roles since she joined the organization. She’s done color commentary on the radio and TV. She filled in for Darren Pang on the TV side during the Blackhawks’ recent road trip to Florida. Mostly this season, she’s being utilized as a studio analyst on NBC Sports Chicago.

“The feedback has been excellent,” Faulkner said. “It’s interesting, I think fans believe in her more sometimes than she believes in herself, honestly. I sometimes think we believe in her more than she believes in herself. I think that’s true of anybody in their career. You need people in your corner. What a gift that the fans are in her corner. I don’t think that has anything to do with the fact that she’s Chris’ daughter. I think that has everything to do with the fact she’s good at what she does.”

Because Chelios is a woman, because she’s in a non-traditional role for a non-former professional player and because of her last name, she’s often tried to keep a more serious persona on air.

It’s something she’s worked to change over the past few years.

“I feel much more comfortable being myself now,” Chelios said. “Like, I put in enough work where I can show some personality. And you know, I’m not erasing everything I’ve worked for by making a dumb joke or a dumb comment on accident. But I like to have fun. My personality’s actually quite sillier and laid back compared to sometimes how I come across on the broadcasts, and I’m still finding that balance of doing both.”

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Chelios finds herself continuing to evolve as an analyst. She enjoys picking the mind of someone like Tony Granato, who joined the Blackhawks as a studio analyst, or just walking around the Blackhawks dressing room during media availability and having conversations with players. She’s also turned to other commentators like AJ Mleczko and Eddie Olczyk for advice.

It’s not necessarily what you say, but how you say it,” Olczyk said. “I think the more reps you get, the more you’re involved, the more confidence you have and it just becomes natural. It doesn’t feel like you’re fighting it. Could I say this? Should I say this or whatever? You are working for the team and it is about the brand and what have you, but the fan base, especially at home (in Chicago), which I know better than anybody, the people are going to be able to read through if you’re carrying pom-poms or carrying the flag every night.”

Confidence can be a battle for Chelios at times. She said it stems from playing lacrosse at Northwestern and not being one of the best players for the first time. It’s something she’s continually working on.

“I think my dad always joked with me, like, you have to be confident, you can’t lose your confidence,” Chelios said. “But I do think I am hard on myself and I judge myself. But I also think I have a long way to work my way up. So, it’s easy for him to say when he’s been at the top of his career. But he’s right, it’s just keeping things simple.”

Chris said Caley has helped him, as well.

“I don’t think she realizes how much she’s helped me because I’ve gotten into TV a little bit here with ESPN,” he said. “She’s got a great memory. She absorbs everything when it comes to reading and studying the players and knowing the players. She helps me a ton. When the season is going, we talk a couple times a day, two times a day. There are things she doesn’t know that I can add for her, but she helps me a lot more than I help her. I guarantee that.”

Caley Chelios and her father Chris Chelios now both work for the Blackhawks. He’s an ambassador to the team. (Courtesy of the Blackhawks)

But she is coming to terms with feeling like she belongs in her position. It has also helped that she is seeing more and more women in similar roles.

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“I think Jamie Faulkner has always said, like, I think the biggest thing with a lot of women and even with inequality and pay and everything, it’s just a matter of giving them the opportunity, which is true,” Chelios said. “I think about seeing AJ (Mleczko) in the booth for the first time, and I think seeing her made me think I can do it. I feel like I’ve seen so many more women in the last three years, not just in hockey, but in other sports, too. I think it’s just more normal, and I think a lot more women are feeling more comfortable and confident … (and) we’ve gotten better and improved with opportunity, just like anybody else would.”

Faulkner is convinced Chelios is only scratching the surface.

“I don’t think that we had or still have anybody who works harder than she does,” Faulkner said. “She takes this job very seriously. Her prep is unbelievable. And she’s a learner. She just absorbs so much information. … And she gets better and better and better.”

(Top photo courtesy of the Blackhawks)

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