Icemen's Johnson & Reed Named to ECHL All-Star Classic Broadcast Team

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- The ECHL announced on Friday the broadcasters for the 2022 Warrior/ECHL All-Star Classic, to be hosted by the Jacksonville Icemen on Monday, Jan. 17 at 7:30 p.m. ET at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. The game will air LIVE exclusively on NHL Network and be streamed via FloHockey.

Arley Johnson and Alex Reed of the Jacksonville Icemen will provide play-by-play and color commentary for the event respectively, while Jesse Liebman of the Orlando Solar Bears will serve as rinkside reporter/interviewer. 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.

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. 

Liebman is in his seventh season with the Solar Bears after joining the organization as the club’s director of communications and broadcasting prior to the 2015-16 season. Before making his way to Orlando, he spent three seasons with the Ontario Reign, where he held various media relations and sales roles in addition to serving as the team's play-by-play broadcaster. In nearly a full decade in the ECHL, Liebman has broadcasted over 500 regular-season games. A native of Croton-on-Hudson, New York, Liebman also worked at the Boston Globe as a sports correspondent and as a producer at sports radio station WEEI while attending Emerson College in Boston, Mass., where he completed a degree in print and multimedia journalism. 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."

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.