Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi's end after 18 years 'shocking' to community

The cancellation of Hockey Night in Canada Punjabi is impacting more than just the dozen or so employees who worked there, after serving the community for 18 years

Jagraj Lalli had a dream of hosting on the hockey television broadcast since he was eight years old. After landing a job in 2022 to work behind the scenes of the show, Lalli knew he was getting closer to that goal, which eventually came to fruition in October 2025 when he went on air for the first time.

“I sometimes tear up when I think about the moment before I went on air. I was trying my best to to contain the emotions because I was about to go on air in front of the whole world,” Lalli said on Sunday.

“But it was tough at that moment not to think of my great-grandmother, not to think of my parents who worked so hard day in and day out to make sure that I got everything I wanted in my childhood, and it allowed me to pursue my dreams such as this to be able to make it on the show I grew up watching.”

The Punjabi version of the broadcast was cancelled by Rogers Sports & Media on Friday, with the broadcast’s social media page sharing the news of the show’s cancellation. It stated the show is proud of its accomplishments over the last 18 years and for creating a “truly unique” space in Canadian sports.

The show aired Saturday nights, providing National Hockey League game coverage and features from around the league in Punjabi.

Lalli and his colleagues found out about the news the day before on a conference call. While many anticipated some cuts, an outright cancellation was “shocking,” he said.

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“Between the departures of News1130 as well as Sportsnet 650, and then some talent being laid off as well on the Sportsnet front, we were expecting that change was coming,” Lalli added. “It’s bittersweet in the sense of bitter being, our show is over, but sweet being, we’re seeing all around the world now what sort of positive impact this show had on the hockey world in general.”

The cancellation has drawn backlash from many in both the Punjabi-Canadian and sports communities.

Punjabi TV journalist Manraaj Grewal said she personally knows many people who benefited from the broadcast.

“I think we’re definitely going to lose many viewers who are not going to feel comfortable who listened because of the hosts’ voices because they found comfort, and not just the language but the host themself,” Grewal said.

“Now, we, as the younger generation, are going to be watching Hockey Night with our parents, our grandparents and being translators for them. … I don’t know what the thinking was behind it, but yeah, it kind of feels like this little piece of culture that we had that was our own, but mixed with Canadian culture is kind of being taken away.”

Lalli agrees that the show was the bridge between Punjabi culture and hockey.