Thomas Hickeys Islanders career makes unexpected pivot to MSG Networks: He was always insightf

June 30, 2024

It was only about a year ago that Thomas Hickey was, as he vividly recalls, “extremely stressed.”

The defenseman was coming off of a 2021-22 season spent mostly in the minors. He appeared in a pair of games with the Islanders around Thanksgiving that season, but the rest of his time was split between AHL Bridgeport and Ontario, California, home of the Los Angeles Kings’ primary affiliate. He hadn’t spent any significant stretches on an NHL roster since before the pandemic.

Another professional contract, his primary objective, was no sure thing for the then 33-year-old. With the opening of NHL training camps on the horizon, Hickey was enduring what every professional athlete dreads: pondering the possibility that no one wanted him anymore.

“So much uncertainty and I think that’s really difficult to deal with,” Hickey said.

Hickey did eventually sign a professional tryout with the Devils and had tentative plans to play in Switzerland if it didn’t work out with New Jersey. In fact, when the Devils released him from his PTO, he was “at a point pretty much (with) bags packed, ready to go.”

But before hopping on that transcontinental flight to the land of chocolate and ski chalets, Hickey decided to do some tire-kicking. He got in touch with the Islanders, and then subsequently spoke with more people at MSG Networks, the club’s regional sports network.

Becoming an analyst wasn’t really something that Hickey ever thought too much about as a player, but he found a receptive audience. And, why wouldn’t he? Hickey already had a reputation for giving thoughtful, sharp-witted quotes in his dealings with reporters, making him a prime candidate to transition into an on-air analyst, according to those in his orbit.

“As a reporter, he was always a great person to interview,” said Shannon Hogan, MSG’s Islanders pregame and postgame host since 2014. “He was always insightful. We always joked that the best intermission interview was Thomas Hickey because he had the best answers that weren’t just the standard ‘blah blah blah’.”

Steve Napolitani, the producer of Islanders broadcasts since 2021, who has been covering the league for two decades in various television roles, said: “From his playing days, everybody kind of knew he was a pretty good speaker. … And I think he caught the eyes of the folks here at MSG.”

So they brought him in. And after just a few times on the air, those at the network quickly realized they had someone who had a knack for the job.

“It came to him very quick,” Napolitani said. “The way he came on the air and presented himself and worked the cameras and worked with Shannon…it was pretty seamless sitting in the (production) truck, watching him do it. You weren’t expecting it to be as good that quickly. But it was.”

Hickey’s finding a role on the Islanders’ broadcast team so soon after his playing days ended — he’s officially returning for the 2023-24 season, the network announced earlier this week — wasn’t just a benefit for MSG and the fan base, but for Hickey himself. There just wasn’t any time to mourn or pout about the end of an NHL career that began with his becoming the No. 4 pick in the 2007 draft.

“I think that under normal circumstances, there would have been probably a grieving period,” said Hickey, who played 456 career NHL games over nine seasons, all with the Islanders. “I was lucky that it happened so quickly. … It didn’t really allow me a time to sit back and miss the game too much because I was still so involved in it.”

But there was still a learning curve with the new gig, even if Hickey had the benefit of knowing so many Islanders players’ so well from when they were his teammates. Having the knowledge is one thing; presenting it in a clear, concise way while staring into that vacant rounded glass camera lens is another.

Live television can be tricky. Storylines change at a moment’s notice. Earpieces suddenly go silent. The wrong replay shows up on the screen. Heck, in one of his first broadcasts on the road, Hickey, and Hogan, both had to get out of the way of a Zamboni that had just completed an ice resurfacing.

“You can prepare and know what you’re going to say, but there’s no way to prepare for live television when it goes wrong,” Hogan said. “The people at home half the time don’t even know, but there have been many times where all of a sudden you can’t hear someone, or something goes, out, or there’s a Zamboni. … He was always so calm. That was really impressive.”

Thomas Hickey and Shannon Hogan (Photo: MSG Network)

It’s a common misconception, too, that analysts or color commentators, particularly those who played the game, can simply get in front of a camera and riff off of whatever they see on the ice. It’s not that simple. Hickey’s pregame preparation is something that stuck out to Napolitani, who has worked with some of the best in the business like Joe Micheletti, Keith Jones and Eddie Olczyk.

“There is a lot of work to it,” Napolitani said. “Anybody can comment on the game, but you can pretty much tell who’s done the work and who hasn’t just by watching the telecasts. Thomas and I will talk the day before games, morning of games, and he comes with ideas. Not only ideas of (what he wants to) talk about, but examples. That takes time. He’s watching games over and over to find things that he wants to talk about, and bringing fresh ideas. … Explaining it to me, almost like a dry run to explaining it to the viewer at home.”

Napolitani offered an example.

“He wanted to talk about (Islanders defenseman) Noah Dobson’s release point. We broke down some video in a pregame (show). That’s not something you hear often, the release point of a defenseman. And I just thought, wow, I’ve been doing this for this long, and somebody else is bringing this fresh idea, which is awesome.”

Said Hickey: “The hardest part for me was getting into a routine and understanding the amount of work that I need to put in in order for me to be my best. As the season went on, it was trying to figure out, what’s the perfect amount of preparation and time that I can put into this that it just feels natural and I go up and present authentically, and feel like I’m really prepared?”

Hickey added that he felt truly comfortable around February, which might have been fortuitous timing. That was right around when the Islanders took a dramatic downturn, a roster of players seemingly forgetting how to score goals. The losses mounted.

While Hickey’s familiarity and friendships with so many players that he once called teammates were beneficial for his analysis, it also meant there might be some awkwardness when trying to fairly evaluate the team when it was struggling. In the middle of February, particularly after Mathew Barzal went down with a lower-body injury, it looked like the Islanders might be in for a meaningless final few weeks.

That meant there had to be some critical analysis from the broadcast team.

“That’s what I was most worried about at the beginning,” Hickey said.

His approach was to lean on his knowledge of each individual player while reminding the audience that “it’s a game of mistakes. I always think that there’s a way to make it known why the mistake was made and why it stood out based on that person’s past of perhaps not letting that happen to them very often. It’s a balancing act, but at the same time, we’ve got fans that don’t want to be buttered up, they want to hear it how it is.”

Said Napolitani: “He did a good job of telling the fan what he was seeing. He’s a professional. His teammates are professionals. If he sees something good or bad, someone who he’s speaking about probably agrees with him. He does it in a respectful, professional manner, and I think it’s respected because of how he presents and handles it. Good or bad…he’s honest, and I think the fan base appreciates that.”

What Hickey didn’t want to do during those February doldrums was offer any hot takes, or yell and scream like some fans at home and online surely were, despite the Islanders looking like they were well on their way to missing the playoffs.

And, of course, that didn’t happen. Despite Barzal’s injury, the Islanders played strong hockey down the stretch before clinching the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference.

“I think it’s important for me, fresh out of the game, to try and really stay away from overreactions,” Hickey said. “I think the further withdrawn you are from playing, perhaps the less grasp that you have on how quickly things can change and how quickly things can turn around. If someone is going through a slump, sometimes it feels like — OK, what’s wrong with this guy? He hasn’t played like himself, and he’s really in a rut.

“I think about myself, and the way I played — things turn, and try to look at the body of work of a player or the history of a team having a bad month and not trying to get over consumed with the doom and gloom, or highs and lows.”

Now, as he prepares for his second season on the air, Hickey’s future is much clearer just one year into his post-playing career. And, in some respects, it’s brighter.

“Hicks has a really bright future,” Napolitani said. “He is a natural at this.”

Said Hickey: “It’s a much better feeling this summer, this year, coming into it knowing I’ve got something new that I’m trying to build. It’s such a different feeling — and a lot less stressful.”

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