Farewell, Drew Remenda

I’m off by a week and one day in writing about this due to how busy I’ve been, but here’s my long overdue article dedicated to Drew Remenda.

This off-season has so far been a very bitter one for San Jose Sharks fans. Although the Sharks’ playoff collapse had no effect on new owner Hasso Plattner’s decision to fire former Sharks’ Color Analyst Drew Remenda, it was still a move that upset a clear majority of the fan base.

First off, though, for those who don’t know Drew very well here’s some of his background. Before Remenda started his career in broadcasting, he was an assistant coach from the team’s inception back in ’91 to ’95. He was then offered a job in the radio broadcast booth to serve as an analyst alongside with Sharks’ radio play-by-play announcer Dan Rusanowsky. Then, in 1999 he was moved up to join Randy Hahn in the TV booth forming one of the most dynamic and popular broadcasting tandems in the NHL.

The amount of chemistry he and Randy had together was phenomenal. To me, Drew had set himself apart from almost all other broadcasters in the League because he had true compassion for the sport. He wasn’t just an analyst. He was a fan. Unlike many others whom I’ve listened to, he never followed the script to its fullest extent if you will. You can argue that he may have been a homer, but he was never afraid to criticize when he felt it was needed. That is why we love him so much. He was never afraid to tell it like it was. Like a lot of other fellow Sharks fans, Drew Remenda was one of the main reasons I got so into hockey and know as much about it as I do today.

Like I mentioned at the end of the first paragraph, the Drew Remenda firing was one that upset a lot of us. The impact was huge. On Twitter, there was a “BringBackDrew” hashtag and a few t-shirts to show our support for him and our displeasure for the Sharks organization. Hell, I myself even made one of two petitions out there (that I saw) which now has 209 signatures. Most importantly and incredibly, at one point that night we all found out he was fired Drew’s name was the number one trending on that social media site. As much as we’d love for him to come back, unless the front office hears our voice it’s not going to happen. Drew’s left the Sharks’ broadcasting booth once before back in ’06 after the Sharks were eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers, but that was by choice.

We’ll always miss his thoughtful insights as a Shark and the magazine-type show that he hosted on Comcast SportsNet California, Shark Byte. He also did 20 Questions and those Quick Quizzes. The most memorable thing I will ever see is the “Tie99” hashtag on Twitter dedicated to him by the @NHLTies Twitter account.

Farewell, Drew Remenda. We wish you luck in wherever you decide to go.