Brown discusses Kraken inaugural season in Q&A with NHL.com

NHL.com's Q&A feature called "Sitting Down with …" runs each Sunday. We talk to key figures in the game, gaining insight into their lives on and off the ice. This edition features former NHL forward JT Brown, the Seattle Kraken's television color analyst.

JT Brown said he still remembers experiencing nervousness unlike anything he felt during seven seasons as a forward in the NHL.
It was March 21, 2021 and Brown was auditioning to become the first television color analyst for the Seattle Kraken. It was an unconventional tryout with Brown in Sweden, where he was playing his final season of professional hockey, former Carolina Hurricanes play-by-play announcer John Forslund in North Carolina, and a ROOTS Sports production crew putting it all together in Seattle.
"I was pretty nervous," Brown said. "The easiest part about playing hockey is you can tell yourself, 'This is just another game, I've done this before.' But for this, I had never done this before, so I had nothing to say to calm me down. I did a 'Broadcasting 101' the night before and that was literally all the training I had at that point."
The 31-year-old passed the test and he's now winding down his first season behind the mic as the Kraken's TV analyst alongside Forslund, who also calls games on national "NHL on TNT" broadcasts.
Like the expansion team he analyzes, Brown said he has grown as the season progressed.
"Probably not going to be perfect for a while, right, like a work in progress," Brown said. "But I can't think of anybody better to have with me helping me out along the way than John Forslund."
Brown traded his stick for a microphone this season after he scored 72 points (23 goals, 49 assists) in 365 games for the Tampa Bay Lightning, Anaheim Ducks and Minnesota Wild from 2011-19. He scored six points (one goals, five assists) in 41 Stanley Cup Playoff Games.
He played for IF Bjorkloven in Allsvenskan, the second-highest professional league in Sweden, in 2020-21 and scored 12 points (six goals, six assists) in 16 regular-season games.
Throughout his playing career, Brown balanced his love of hockey with his passion for gaming and work on social justice and anti-racism issues.
He became the first NHL player to protest on the ice during the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" when he raised his fist during preseason and regular-season games with the Lightning in 2017 to draw awareness to police brutality and other challenges that people of color face.
Brown cultivated a strong social media following off the ice through his Twitch channel, where he played and interacted with fellow gamers, and by hosting Fortnite marathons for charity.
NHL.com caught up with Brown and discussed several topics, including his take on the Kraken's first season, his path to broadcasting and trying to balance gaming with his new job.
You retired as a pro hockey player at 30 years old. Was it a tough decision?
"Yeah, I mean I think it was. But it wasn't at the same time. You want to play as long as you can. You have that fire, that competitive drive to keep playing. At the same time, I had to look at what opportunities were ahead of me and where do you want to go long term. Having it be Seattle, having it be their first year, and just the organization, what they stand for, the people they they've brought in made it a little bit of an easier decision."
How was the Seattle broadcast offer presented to you?
"My agent (Eustace King) kind of just talked to me about, 'Would you be willing to do this' and 'we want to set up a test broadcast with John.' So, we ended up doing all that while I was in Sweden still playing. We had to do the test run to see if it would work, if John and I would mesh together, if John wanted to work with me. I think there was a little bit of a process where, just talking back and forth, then just doing the actual call the first time and being able to just test if this is something that I could do."
How do you think you did in the audition?
"I mean, I was nervous. It was weird. But at the same time, I think it went well. I think, obviously, the main thing was just to go out there and just do your best. It was probably my first real job interview, so definitely a little bit different. But at the same time, I think after about five minutes went by, you just kind of you get into the groove and you just start talking, right? That's the kind of be all, end all."
You and Everett Fitzhugh, the Kraken's radio play-by-play broadcaster, were paired and became the first all-Black TV hockey broadcast team in the NHL when you called a game against the Winnipeg Jets on Feb. 17. Do you still think about that moment?
"Yeah, I mean, it was pretty cool. We kind of knew it would happen at some point. We kind of joked around about it. We had some practice calls as well with ROOTS at the beginning of the year when John was still in Carolina to kind of get me ready, but also at the same time, to give Everett a little taste of what the TV side was. But that was at the studio. Looking back at it, it was a fun, really fun call just be able to call with somebody who's a friend but also to be able to make a little bit of history in the process and maybe inspire somebody along the way."

Putting on your TV critic's hat, how do you think you've done in your first season as a broadcaster?
"Obviously, there's stuff every game that I need to improve on. And I know that, and I think that's the key is knowing that I need to improve. I'm still learning from game to game. But for me, the big thing is to try to look at it in hockey terms, to look at the hockey games in five games segments. Am I improving from Game One going to Game Five? Did I improve in Game 10? I think I'm getting a little bit more confidence, a little bit more comfortable understanding the position. I think there's a lot of growth from the first games we called in preseason to where we are now, but that doesn't mean that it's perfect or that I'm done growing or learning."
Putting on you TV analyst's hat, how do you assess the Kraken's first season?
"I think you'd want to do a little better to where they are right now, I think that's a given. But if I look at the first half, second half, I think there's been some adjustments and improvements, especially throughout the D zone and even in the offensive zone. At the same time, maybe the record hasn't quite shown it. But I think they've got themselves into a good spot going forward. I think that the way they are set up, they're good for the future. And I think that's where you, obviously, have a core group of guys. The trade deadline was a big moment for this organization moving forward with all the different draft picks. Now you have options of how you want to go into Season Two. I think everybody would have loved to have another Vegas-type first season (the Vegas Golden Knights reached the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural season in 2017-18). I think, realistically, that wasn't necessarily in the cards. But the moves at the deadline really set them up for a successful future."
Has the broadcasting job impacted your gaming time?
"A little bit. As a (hockey) player, I'd look at the night before a game, 'I can do whatever I want to, I can play video games after dinner.' Whereas now I'm spending that time getting my notes ready or watching the team that we play next. Yes, it's slowed it down a little bit, but I still get to play every now and then, so I'm okay. And then it'll be a long summer."