ESPN slammed for coverage of Carter Hart’s NHL return

Carter Hart made his long-awaited return to the NHL on Tuesday, starting for the Vegas Golden Knights in a 4–3 shootout win over the visiting Chicago Blackhawks. It was his first NHL game in 682 days, yet many viewers felt ESPN’s coverage failed to provide adequate context for his absence.

Hart, acquitted in the high-profile 2018 World Junior Hockey Canada trial, signed a two-year, $4 million deal with Vegas and is the only one of the five defendants to secure a new NHL contract so far. While the pregame show on ESPN2 and ESPN+ briefly covered Hart’s legal history, including a timeline graphic and reporting from Emily Kaplan, the broadcast largely avoided mentioning it after puck drop.

During the roughly three-hour ESPN+ broadcast, commentators Steve Levy and former goalie Kevin Weekes delivered effusive praise for Hart, celebrating every save and goal reaction. Levy’s enthusiastic “welcome back Carter Hart!” call following Shea Theodore’s shootout winner quickly drew social media attention, with viewers questioning the lack of context about Hart’s nearly two-year absence.

Complaints flooded X, with some criticizing the broadcast as overly positive and disconnected from the reality of Hart’s legal and professional hiatus. The What Chaos! podcast’s Pete Blackburn and DJ Bean described ESPN’s approach as “glazing,” adding, “They were too heavy handed on the ‘triumph’ part of this … If you had no idea what had happened and just tuned into this game, went in blind, you’d be like, ‘Did this guy beat cancer or something?’”

ESPN declined to comment on its handling of the broadcast. For fans and observers, the return of a controversial player should have been covered with nuance and context, rather than a near-celebratory narrative. As you may have guessed, on social media, several fans had negative things to say about Hart’s return to the NHL. Some pledged donations to organizations supporting sexual violence survivors for every goal Hart allowed.

While Hart’s performance earned him the third star of the game, the broader conversation surrounding his return remains a point of debate, particularly around how sports media covers sensitive topics in live games.