- December 27, 2024
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Matt Graifer — the Young Professor — will be a host at the NHL Winter Classic on Dec. 31 at Chicago’s Wrigley Field.
It will be the Palm Coast resident’s first experience hosting a hockey game, and he’ll be doing it at the National Hockey League’s marquee regular-season event.
Graifer will be one of two hosts for the game between the Chicago Blackawks and the St. Louis Blues. The league selected him after seeing his work with the Savannah Bananas baseball team.
“The Banana stuff is so much crazier than other sporting events. We’re more fan focused,” Graifer said.
And that’s what an NHL vice president told Graifer they wanted for the Winter Classic, Graifer said.
Graifer won’t be part of the TV broadcast. His role will be to help entertain spectators at Wrigley Field before the game and during media timeouts.
“It’s a lot of what I did for the (Daytona) Tortugas (baseball team) and a lot of what I do for the Bananas,” he said. “I’m just doing it for the NHL at their biggest game of the year.”
He will also host an NHL Stadium Series game between the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Detroit Red Wings on March 1 at Ohio Stadium on the campus of Ohio State University.
The Winter Classic is not Graifer’s first experience as a host for a major sporting event. In 2022, he introduced the drivers at the Coke Zero Sugar 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona International Speedway.
Graifer has been working full-time for the Savannah Bananas for the past year as the organization’s casting director and the master of ceremonies for the games.
