Linda Cohn isn\u2019t returning to Kraken Hockey Network this season, according to Kate Shefte of The Seattle Times.<\/p>\n
Cohn<\/a> worked as a studio host for KHN periodically during the network\u2019s debut season in 2024-25, but the Kraken decided to go with Ian Furness<\/a> exclusively for the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n \u201cLinda brought passion and hall-of-fame experience to our inaugural KHN season, and we are so grateful she was part of our broadcasts as special host,\u201d a team representative told The Seattle Times<\/a>. \u201cWe wish Linda nothing but the best and will remain in contact about opportunities in the years ahead. The decision to go exclusively with Ian as host was to build on last year and bring a more consistent on-air group to our KHN broadcasts in 25-26.\u201d<\/p>\n Cohn joined KHN last September<\/a> when the Kraken launched the network after ending their relationship<\/a> with ROOT Sports Northwest. The team moved to a free, over-the-air model on KONG and KING 5 in Seattle, with games also streaming on Prime Video for members in Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. Cohn flew from Los Angeles to Seattle on days off and vacations to host games, something she said she wanted to do because of her ties to the city from her time at KIRO-TV from 1989-1992.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a big reason why I\u2019m doing this,\u201d Cohn said when she joined KHN last year<\/a>. \u201cBesides the fact that the Kraken are an amazing organization and there\u2019s so much promise with this team, it\u2019s personal for me to be back in Seattle. It\u2019s a city that I\u2019ll always love forever because it\u2019s a family connection.\u201d She also said she was excited to be part of a team again after spending decades anchoring SportsCenter. \u201cI\u2019ve spent, like, a million years at SportsCenter \u2014 well, 32 years and I\u2019m still doing it. But here is an opportunity to join a team. A real team, right?\u201d<\/p>\n The Kraken cited continuity as the reason for the change, with Furness now handling studio hosting duties exclusively. Furness hosts a show on KJR, the Kraken\u2019s radio partner, and has done play-by-play for the Seattle Thunderbirds and Tri-City Americans of the Western Hockey League. The team said they\u2019ll stay in contact with Cohn about future opportunities, though what that actually means in practice is unclear.<\/p>\n Cohn remains with ESPN full-time, where she\u2019s been a SportsCenter anchor since 1992. She signed a multi-year contract extension with ESPN in 2022<\/a> shortly after celebrating her 30th anniversary with the network. Earlier this year, ESPN ended the Los Angeles-based edition of SportsCenter<\/a> that Cohn had been co-hosting with Stan Verrett<\/a> at 1 a.m. ET. The network moved that edition to Bristol, and Cohn\u2019s role shifted to anchoring some SportsCenter shows while also working on features and special projects. She\u2019s based in Los Angeles and travels to Bristol when needed for her ESPN work<\/a>, which is why the Kraken gig made sense as a way to stay involved with hockey without leaving the West Coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Linda Cohn isn\u2019t returning to Kraken Hockey Network this season, according to Kate Shefte of The Seattle Times.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[172037,172038,172039,385,4831,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-343529","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ian-furness","9":"tag-kraken-hockey-network","10":"tag-linda-cohn","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-seattle-kraken","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}