AHL play-by-play announcer Shaya ‘overwhelmed’ by support upon coming out

During June, the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association’s joint Hockey Is For Everyone initiative will celebrate Pride Month. All 32 NHL Clubs, alumni, and current players will participate in pride events, including parades, across North America. As part of Pride Month, NHL.com will share stories about the LGBTQI+ hockey community. Today, a look at Jason Shaya, an American Hockey League play-by-play announcer who came out as gay in October.
 

Jason Shaya laughs now about the sleepless nights, fretful phone calls and anxiety he experienced before the announcement he feared would negatively impact his life.

Shaya, the play-by-play voice for Utica of the American Hockey League, came out as a gay man in a story on the TSN website in October and he braced himself for a barrage of hurtful reaction.

It never came.

“It was overwhelmingly supportive,” Shaya said of the response. “I was bowled over. I didn’t know the response would be something like that. I thought it would be a moment, and we’d just go through it. I have been approached as much by people that I knew and know who were supportive as much as by people I didn’t know who’ve come up to me and said, ‘Here’s why your story affected me.’ I was overwhelmed by that.”

The 41-year-old Detroit native had been contemplating coming out for a while and watched others in the hockey and sports world do it last year, including Nashville Predators defenseman prospect Luke Prokop, hockey player agent Bayne Pettinger and NFL player Carl Nassib.

Shaya said nothing has changed for him professionally since coming out. He’s said he’s still viewed by his employer, peers, players and fans as a hockey broadcaster, and not as “a gay hockey broadcaster.”

“I think that’s the coolest thing because, at the end of the day, Shaya is Shaya,” said Utica president Robert Esche, a former goalie who played 186 NHL games for the Phoenix Coyotes and Philadelphia Flyers from 1998-2007. “I mean, it was business as usual for him. He’s a terrific broadcaster,…