William Scott Gardner (born March 19, 1960) is a Canadian former professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

forward and current color commentator for the

Chicago Wolves The Chicago Wolves are a professional ice hockey team playing in the American Hockey League and are the top minor-league affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League. The Wolves play home games at the Allstate Arena in the C ...

. He played in the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

with the

Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division i ...

and

Hartford Whalers The Hartford Whalers were a professional ice hockey team based for most of its existence in Hartford, Connecticut. The club played in the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1972 until 1979, and in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1979 to ...

between 1980 and 1989.

Career

Gardner was born in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. During the 1976–77 season, Gardner played for the Seneca Nationals alongside future all-time NHL points leader

Wayne Gretzky Wayne Douglas Gretzky ( ; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One ...

. Gardner won the team's Most Valuable Player award that season, scoring 103 points as a defensemen. Gardner then went on to play for the OHL's

Peterborough Petes The Peterborough Petes are a junior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey League. The team has played at the Peterborough Memorial Centre in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, since 1956, and is the oldest continuously operating team in the league. ...

, where in 1979, the Petes would go on to win the

Memorial Cup The Memorial Cup () is the national championship of the Canadian Hockey League, a consortium of three major junior ice hockey leagues operating in Canada and parts of the United States. It is a four-team round-robin tournament played between t ...

. Gardner was drafted 49th Overall by the Chicago Blackhawks, just one pick after Mark Messier. Gardner started his

career with the

in 1981. He would spend his entire career with the Blackhawks except for 26 games he played for the

in 1986. During his career, he scored 73 goals, 115 assists, 188 points in 380 games. Gardner's career as a broadcaster began in 1989 as a studio analyst on

SportsChannel Chicago Fox Sports Net Chicago (often branded as FSN Chicago) was an American regional sports network that was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois and was owned by Cablevision for most of its history (from 1987 to 2005). News Corporation acquired a minori ...

's Blackhawks broadcasts. In 1996, he replaced

Daryl Reaugh Daryl Kevin "Razor" Reaugh (pronounced "Ray") (born February 13, 1965) is a retired professional ice hockey goaltender and now a broadcaster for the Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League (NHL), ''NHL on NBC'' and ''Hockey Night in Canada''. H ...

television broadcasts when Reaugh left to become radio analyst for the

Dallas Stars The Dallas Stars are a professional ice hockey team based in Dallas. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and were founded during the 1967 NHL expansion as the Minne ...

when it looked as if the Whalers might leave Hartfor

He followed the Whalers to

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

when the team relocated the next season, but left after one season return to the

as the team's color analyst on television and radio

Gardner served as color commentator for the Blackhawks alongside Pat Foley until 2002. He has been the color analyst for the

since 2002. He lives in

Elmhurst, Illinois Elmhurst is a city mostly in DuPage County and overlapping into Cook County in the U.S. state of Illinois, and a western suburb of Chicago. As of 2021, the city has an estimated population of 47,260. History Members of the Potawatomi Native ...

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

International

External links

* 1960 births Living people Binghamton Whalers players Canadian expatriate ice hockey players in Austria Canadian ice hockey centres Carolina Hurricanes announcers Chicago Blackhawks announcers Chicago Blackhawks draft picks Chicago Blackhawks players Dallas Stars announcers EC Graz players EC Kapfenberg players Hartford Whalers announcers Hartford Whalers players Ice hockey people from Ontario Innsbrucker EV players National Hockey League broadcasters New Brunswick Hawks players Peterborough Petes (ice hockey) players Saginaw Hawks players Sportspeople from Toronto {{Canada-icehockey-centre-1960s-stub