Jesse Liebman named to broadcast team for 2022 Warrior/ECHL All-Star Classic

ORLANDO, Fla. — The ECHL announced today that Orlando Solar Bears broadcaster Jesse Liebman has been named to the broadcast team of the 2022 Warrior/ECHL All-Star Classic, to be hosted by the Jacksonville Icemen on Monday, Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. ET at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. The game will air LIVE exclusively on NHL Network and be streamed via FloHockey.

Liebman will serve as the rinkside reporter for the telecast, joining Arley Johnson and Alex Reed of the Icemen broadcast team, who will provide play-by-play and color commentary for the event respectively. Local channel listings are available at NHL Network.com.

In this year’s All-Star event, the host Jacksonville Icemen will take on a team of ECHL All-Stars representing the other teams in the League, as well as feature several Skills events which will count as a goal towards the winning Player’s team score. Each team will also have a representative from the Premier Hockey Federation and Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association.

Liebman is in his seventh season with the Solar Bears organization as the team’s director of communications and broadcasting. The 2021-22 campaign marks his 10th season of broadcasting professional hockey, all in the ECHL, having also served as part of the broadcast staff of the Ontario Reign from 2012-15. Liebman also worked at the Boston Globe as a sports correspondent and as a producer at sports radio station WEEI while attending Emerson College, where he received a bachelor’s degree in print and multimedia journalism in 2010. From high school through his post-graduate career, Liebman interned for Lester Patrick Award-winning hockey author, historian and broadcaster Stan Fischler, receiving acknowledgement in Fischler’s 2013 book, “Boston Bruins: Greatest Moments & Players.”

Johnson has been the voice for Jacksonville Icemen home games since their inception in 2017, and has called Jacksonville home since 2003. He boasts 15 seasons of experience and has broadcast over 700 hockey games. His first stop in the ECHL was in 1995 with the Mobile Mysticks. He has also spent time with the Greensboro Generals in the ECHL, along with the Macon Whoopee and Nashville NightHawks in the Central Hockey League and the New Haven Knights in the United Hockey League. Johnson has received an award from the Massachusetts Associated Press for best play-by-play while broadcasting for Merrimack College of the Hockey East conference. Johnson is originally from Barrington, Rhode Island and is a graduate of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

Reed brings 13 years of media relations and broadcasting experience in hockey to the Icemen front office, and previously worked the ECHL All-Star Classic in 2019 in Toledo. He is in his 10th season in the ECHL following stints with Norfolk Admirals, Florida Everblades and Wheeling Nailers. In addition, he worked three seasons for the Lewiston MAINEiacs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League) from 2007-10. Reed graduated with a Master’s Degree in Public Relations from Marshall University in 2007. While at Marshall, he served as station manager of WMUL-FM and was twice named Broadcaster of the Year by the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Association. He was named a finalist for the ECHL Broadcaster of the Year Award in 2013 and 2017.

The 14th class of the ECHL Hall of Fame will be officially inducted at a luncheon, presented by BFL CANADA and Sutton Special Risk, on Monday, Jan. 17 at 12:00 p.m. at the DoubleTree by Hilton Jacksonville Riverfront in Jacksonville, Florida, the Official Host Hotel of the 2022 ECHL All-Star Classic.

For more information on the 2022 Warrior/ECHL All-Star Classic, and to purchase tickets, please visit www.echlallstarclassic.com.

About the ECHL

Began in 1988-89 with five teams in four states, the ECHL has grown into a coast-to-coast league with 27 teams in 20 states and two Canadian provinces for its 34th season in 2021-22. There have been 718 players who have gone on to play in the National Hockey League after starting their careers in the ECHL, including 20 who have made their NHL debuts in the 2021-22 season. The ECHL has affiliations with 27 of the 32 NHL teams in 2021-22, marking the 25th consecutive season that the league has affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL. Further information on the ECHL is available on its website at ECHL.com as well as on Twitter and Facebook.