MSG Networks to add AJ Mleczko as studio analyst for Islanders games
AJ Mleczko of Team USA against the Western Collegiate Hockey Association All-Star Team at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Oct. 6, 2001. Credit: Getty Images/Brian Bahr
AJ Mleczko, an Olympic gold and silver medalist in women’s hockey, will join MSG Networks as a studio analyst for select Islanders games this season, the network announced on Tuesday.
Mleczko will work approximately 20 games, alongside the returning team of host/reporter Shannon Hogan, game analyst Butch Goring and play-by-play announcer Brendan Burke on MSG+.
She will debut at the Islanders’ home opener on Saturday against the Predators.
“It’s truly an honor to join MSG Networks for coverage of the New York Islanders, one of the most storied franchises in the league,” Mleczko said in a news release. “I’ve been fortunate to have had some great moments throughout my career, both as a player and a broadcaster, and to have the opportunity to now team up with Butch, Brendan, Shannon and the entire MSG Networks’ Islanders family is incredibly exciting.”
A USA Hockey Hall of Famer, Mleczko, who is from New Canaan, Connecticut, won a gold medal in the 1998 Olympics in Nagano and a silver in 2002 in Salt Lake City. She has worked as an NBC analyst since 2006.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
