John Buccigross criticized for 'another year of missing the playoffs' line after Red Wings' pick (2024)

Coverage of a league’s entry draft comes with plenty of potential perils, and one of those is with criticism of picks. A stream of “great selection” comments for every pick certainly doesn’t add anything, but particularly going at a specific player can draw its own criticism. And that happened with John Buccigross on ESPN’s 2024 NHL Draft coverage Friday night.

Ahead of the Detroit Red Wings’ first-round pick (15th overall), Buccigross discussed how the team has missed the playoffs for eight straight seasons (with that the second-longest streak in the NHL, behind only the Buffalo Sabres, who they were just talking about with the 14th pick). He then spent significant airtime lobbying for Red Wings’ GM Steve Yzerman to draft U.S National Team Development Program winger Cole Eiserman.

It’s unclear how much of that was a bit based on their names and how much was a serious push for Eiserman, who the New York Islanders wound up selecting 20th overall. However, Buccigross’ desk colleague Emily Kaplan noted that Yzerman had been seen heavily scouting European players this year, and that his first-round draft history often featured them over Americans or Canadians. And the Red Wings did indeed select Michael Brandsegg-Nygärd, the first Norwegian ever taken in the first round of this draft, and that’s when things got strange.

There, Buccigross noted that Brandsegg-Nygärd was the first Norwegian taken in this round. Kaplan then said “What does that tell you about the American, what did I tell you about Steve Yzerman?” And Buccigross responded with “Another year of missing the playoffs!” twice:

On ESPN's NHL Draft coverage last night, John Buccigross lobbied for the Red Wings to take Cole Eiserman, then said "Another year of missing the playoffs" twice (near the end of this clip) after they instead drafted Michael Brandsegg-Nygärd. pic.twitter.com/U6fuGtVg22

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 29, 2024

That drew blowback. Here’s some of that:

Buccigross screaming “another year of missing the playoffs!” because the Wings didn’t pick the guy he likes, all while a kid is realizing his dream of being drafted to the NHL. not to mention he’s the first ever first rounder from his country, real classy @espn https://t.co/8Cubs1geej

— T-will (@niktewillz) June 29, 2024

How about the jackass’s commentary during the biggest moment of this kids life. https://t.co/Y36P12Guyf

— andrew (@andrewpeter13) June 29, 2024

Well see now the Wings have to make the playoffs this year just to spite whoever just said that.

See Also

What’s next for NFL in 'Sunday Ticket' case after ruling comes down against the league?SBJ Unpacks: NBA-ESPN deal will push international, digital elementsNFL launching a flag football answer to the Little League World SeriesThe NBA Draft needs to be a better television product

— Coalith 💌🩸📛 (@coal_iii) June 29, 2024

i hope we make the playoffs this year to make that announcer the biggest laughing stock

— Raven Nerd Leader (@RavenPLFN) June 29, 2024

In fairness to the full ESPN coverage, this was followed by a couple of minutes of actual discussion of Brandsegg-Nygärd. That saw Kevin Weekes and Emily Kaplan in particular both praising his physical play and the way he drives the net:

ESPN did follow this up with some analysis of the Wings' selection of Michael Brandsegg-Nygärd, with Kevin Weekes and Emily Kaplan praising him. pic.twitter.com/5sC7HmYFam

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) June 29, 2024

And, as noted, there’s absolutely room for criticism of particular picks on draft broadcasts. But there are sometimes challenges and blowback when that criticism seems to get too personal, or when it’s not matched by grades. And the particular timing and execution of this criticism is a lot of what led to the blowback here.

If Buccigross had waited until after others on the desk talked about this historic moment for a Norwegian player and stated what they liked about the Brandsegg-Nygärd pick, then chimed in with a reasonable and detailed criticism like “He has those strengths, but I believe they should have taken Eiserman instead for reasons X, Y, and Z,” this wouldn’t have gotten much attention. But “another year of missing the playoffs” is harsh (and also likely an outcome that won’t be all or even mostly about who they chose 15th overall; this is a team game), and it’s particularly harsh to drop that immediately after the selection, with that commentary then winding up in videos just about the pick. So it’s understandable why this took some fire.

This was only a small part of ESPN’s opening night draft broadcast. And it’s worth mentioning that it did win praise on other fronts, including broadcasting innovations around the Sphere site. But Buccigross’ commentary on this particular pick didn’t go over well with many.

[Awful Announcing on X/Twitter]

Recent Posts