Greg Wyshynski is an award-winning writer, blogger and editor, best known for creating Yahoo! Sports’ popular hockey blog, Puck Daddy.
Yahoo! Sports
He was hired by Yahoo! In April 2008 after nearly a decade as a sports editor with The Connection Newspapers in the Washington, D.C. area. This was the product of more than a few beer and chili sessions with editor Jamie Mottram, charged with convincing his superiors that they in fact needed a full-time hockey blogger on staff.
Immediately, Puck Daddy moved to the front of the pack in the hockey blog revolution, blending humor with hard news and features to create a unique voice in sports journalism. Departments like Jersey Fouls became must-reads, while Puck Daddy became the go-to place for instant analysis of breaking news, both serious and frivolous, thanks to a staff of bold, insightful and talented writers.
Wyshynski, a member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, became the first blogger ever named to The Hockey News “100 People of Power and Influence” list, making that special issue several more times. He has covered Stanley Cup Finals, NHL All-Star Games, NHL Drafts, Winter Classics, outdoor games and countless other hockey events. He was on site for Yahoo! Sports for the last three Olympics, including as a general columnist for the 2012 London Games.
He also once accidentally got an NHL referee suspended for doing tequila shots with him and tweeting the photo.
Previous Work
For nearly a decade, Wyshynski served as an editor for The Connection Newspapers of Northern Virginia, a chain of 16 weekly publications with a combined circulation of over 125,000 households. The Connection publishes in the Washington, D.C. suburbs of Fairfax, Arlington, and Loudoun counties (Va.), as well as the cities of Alexandria (Va.), Mount Vernon (Va.), and Potomac (Md.). He received over 50 Virginia Press Association awards for writing and editing, including four first-place citations for sports column writing and one Best-In-Show nomination for a feature story about female high-school football players.
While working for The Connection, Wyshynski branched out into other sports writing. He was an editor forSportsFan Magazine, a quarterly sports publication in Washington, D.C., writing cover stories on hockey fighting among other topics. His weekly syndicated sports column, “The Jester’s Quart,” appeared on SportsFanMagazine.com and several other websites.
In 2006, Wyshynski signed on with AOL Sports’ FanHouse as an NHL writer, joining a murder’s row of hockey bloggers that included James Mirtle. That led to a stint writing the “NHL Closer” for Deadspin under editor Will Leitch, after which he left that site and The Connection to join Yahoo! Sports.
His work has also appeared in The Hockey News, Playboy.com, The Fourth Period Magazine, Brutus, and countless digital outlets.
Podcasting
In 2010, Wyshynski and co-host Rob Pizzo started Puck Daddy Radio, a daily podcast that ran on The Score in Canada in conjunction with Yahoo! Sports. The show combined the whimsical vibe of the blog with insightful interviews with hockey personalities.
After PDR ended in Oct. 2011, Wyshynski partnered with Jeff Marek of Sportsnet for Marek Vs. Wyshynski, a daily podcast that quickly rocketed to being the top-rated hockey podcast on iTunes. Their banter, witty tangents and news-making interviews made the show and must-listen, gathering a considerable following that led to several live events.
He has appeared on dozens of podcasts as a guest, most notably The Bill Simmons Podcast, Doug Loves Movies, The Stars Wars Minute and NPR’s The Weigh In. He’s a frequent guest on several radio networks, including ESPN Radio, Fox Sports Radio, XM NHL Network Radio, TSN Radio, CBC Radio and Sportsnet Radio.
TV/Video
Wyshynski writes and hosts several video segments on Yahoo.com, including “The 2-Minute Minor” and “The Wysh List” during the NHL season.
He has appeared as an analyst on Sportsnet, NBC Sports Network, CSN Washington and CSN New England.
He’s also appeared as a panelist on ESPN, offering a humorous look at sports history on programs such as “Cold Pizza,” “5 Reason You Can’t Blame” and “The Missing Link.”
Books
Wyshynski’s first book was “Glow Pucks & 10-Cent Beer: The 101 Worst Ideas in Sports History” was published in April 2006 by Taylor Trade. This satirical look at sports history garnered rave reviews from the Orlando Sentinel, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and others.
It’s the most well-reviewed bathroom book in sports journalism history, a boast that surprisingly has never been challenged.
Personal
Wyshynski lives in New York City with his fiancé and a dog named Sneakers. His favorite teams are the Devils, Jets, Mets and Nets, so he’s familiar with dashed expectations and parking lot parades.
He’s a graduate of the University of Maryland’s College of Journalism, and a native of Matawan, NJ.