NEW YORK –  This is something Chris Chelios hasn’t had to face since starting out playing hockey and was unable to make a couple of teams before he grew big and blossomed into a National Hockey League Hall of Famer: getting cut.

He was an All Star on the ice but isn’t having his contract renewed at ESPN, according to Front Office Sports, although this cut wasn’t over performance, but the parent company Disney cutting 7,000 jobs and $5.5 billion.

Now 61, he had a long and stellar career in the NHL – 26 years – and one of the toughest players in the game before retiring in 2010 and having won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top defenseman three times and two Stanley Cups.

Chelios joined ESPN’s broadcast roster as a studio analyst in 2016 when the network aired the World Cup of Hockey and was also an analyst for Fox Sports 1 and worked in the Red Wings’ front office before joining ESPN in 2021 when the network reacquired the NHL broadcast rights.

He was on the network’s studio team with former NHL players including Mark Messier, P.K. Subban, Ray Ferraro, Kevin Weekes and Ryan Callahan but can take some solace as the cuts reached the top hierarchy of ESPN, said the New York Post’s Andrew Marchand.

https://nypost.com/2023/06/05/nhl-analyst-chris-chelios-among-espns-payroll-cuts/

While wiping out so many jobs and writing down the payroll and costs, ESPN put out $85 million to bring in multi-sports analyst Pat McAfee and retained its top slate of broadcasters like Stephen A. Smith and Joe Buck.