SportsNet Pittsburgh has let go of Penguins sideline reporter Hailey Hunter after three seasons, ending her run on the network’s rinkside coverage and setting up a nationwide search for her replacement.
The timing matters because Hunter has been a familiar face for Penguins viewers since joining SNP for the 2023-24 season, after earlier work with the New York Islanders in 2021-22 and in golf with Golf Channel and PGA Tour Entertainment. She grew up in Muskegon, Mich., and said she had a close working bond with the people around her, which is why this move lands as more than a routine personnel shuffle.
SportsNet Pittsburgh said it is grateful for Hunter’s contributions and will soon begin a nationwide search for a rinkside reporter for its Penguins coverage. That is the clean business answer. The practical one is that a specific on-air job tied to a specific team is now open, and the network is moving quickly to fill it before the coverage cycle settles in.
Hunter’s own account adds the part the network did not. She said she was told the Penguins had decided they wanted to move in a different direction with the role, but she was not given details. She said she understood that is part of the business, yet also said she absolutely loved her time with SportsNet Pittsburgh and that the network felt like family.
That gap between thanks and explanation is what gives the decision its edge. Hunter said she is planning a get-together next week with many of the people she worked with, from cameramen to producers to executives from the network, the Penguins organization and the Pirates organization, and said about 60 people are expected. Her description — shocked, but supported — suggests the split was abrupt enough to leave the people around it processing the news as much as she is.
SportsNet Pittsburgh’s next move is already clear: the search will go nationwide. For Hunter, the unanswered question is narrower and more personal — why a reporter who had settled into the job for three seasons was told the role needed a different direction at all.
