The St. Louis Blues announced today they have named former NHL forward and St. Louis native Joey Vitale (vih-TAL-ee) the new radio color analyst for the team’s broadcasts on its flagship station, 1120 KMOX. Vitale joins radio play-by-play announcer and fellow St. Louis native Chris Kerber to form an all local broadcast team. Along with broadcasting all St. Louis Blues games on the radio, Vitale will also play a large role in all areas of team related content and community initiatives.
Vitale, 32, grew up in Sunset Hills and played youth hockey for the Affton Americans before attending CBC High School. Following a four-year career at CBC, where he captured the 2001, 2003 and 2004 state championships, Vitale moved on to Northeastern University. During his four years at Northeastern, Vitale was named to the NCAA (Hockey East) All-Academic Team in 2007 and earn a selection to the NCAA (Hockey East) Second All-Star Team in 2008. He also served as team captain during his junior and senior season. In 2005, Vitale was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the seventh round of the National Hockey League (NHL) Entry Draft. He went on to craft an eight-year professional career, beginning with three seasons with the American Hockey League’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (2009-11). A former teammate of current Blues defenseman Robert Bortuzzo, Vitale made his NHL debut with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Feb. 10, 2011. He spent four seasons with the Penguins before playing his final two seasons with the Arizona Coyotes. Overall, Vitale dressed in 234 career NHL regular season games, posting 44 points (11 goals, 33 assists) and 156 penalty minutes.
