Rachel Herzog is the host and analyst for New Jersey Devils broadcasts on MSG Networks, fronting the studio coverage around the game. Rachel Herzog came to the job straight from a local television station in Fargo, North Dakota, and before that she played four seasons of NCAA Division I hockey as a defender at St. Cloud State. MSG announced her on 12 September 2024, and she was back for a second season in 2025-26.
| Fast facts: Rachel Herzog | |
|---|---|
| Known for | Fronting the Devils studio coverage on MSG Networks |
| Current role | Host and analyst, New Jersey Devils broadcasts |
| Employer | MSG Networks |
| Hometown | Oakdale, Minnesota |
| Education | Hill-Murray School, then St. Cloud State University |
| Previous roles | Sports reporter and anchor at WDAY-TV in Fargo, North Dakota |
| Hockey connection | She played 130 NCAA games on defence for St. Cloud State |
| Born | 23 October 1997 |
How did Rachel Herzog get the Devils job?
She was working in Fargo and did not believe the call was real. Rachel Herzog had been a sports reporter at WDAY-TV since December 2022, and she has said out loud what she thought when a job hosting an NHL team’s broadcasts came up.
“There’s no way they’re going to hire somebody out of Fargo,” Rachel Herzog told St. Cloud Live. She put the same thought differently to The Hockey News: “Are they even going to consider somebody who works in Fargo, North Dakota and has two years of experience?”
They did. She had spent close to two years at WDAY, from December 2022 to the end of August 2024, covering high school and college sport across North Dakota and western Minnesota. The offer came in the middle of August 2024, her first day at MSG was 11 September, and the Devils announced her the following day. The channels and streams for every Devils game are in our guide to how to watch the New Jersey Devils.
What is Rachel Herzog’s career?
| Year | Role | Outlet |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Defender, women’s ice hockey | St. Cloud State University |
| 2019 | Studio analyst and ice-side reporter, college hockey | Husky Productions and KMSP FOX9 |
| 2022 | Sports reporter and anchor | WDAY-TV, Fargo |
| 2024 | Host and analyst, Devils broadcasts | MSG Networks |
| 2026 | Subject of a Campbell’s Family Table episode | MSG Networks |
Who did Rachel Herzog replace?
Erika Wachter, who had hosted Devils television coverage on MSG Networks for six seasons and was told in June 2024 that her contract would not be renewed. That makes Rachel Herzog the second woman in a row in the chair, which is worth stating plainly because it rules out the “first woman” framing that gets attached to jobs like this one.
She works alongside two former Devils, Ken Daneyko and Bryce Salvador, who arrived in the studio with around 27 NHL seasons in New Jersey between them, against her none. Daneyko played all twenty of his NHL seasons and 1,283 games for the Devils, and Salvador came over from St. Louis in February 2008 and spent the last seven seasons of his career in New Jersey, where he also captained the team.
Did Rachel Herzog play hockey?
Yes, at a serious level. Rachel Herzog was a defender at St. Cloud State from 2016 to 2020, and her athletics profile covers those four seasons. She played 130 games and recorded 17 points, one goal and sixteen assists, and blocked 125 shots in her first three seasons alone. Before that she won two Minnesota Class 2A state titles with Hill-Murray, in 2014 and 2015.
That background is the reason her title is host and analyst rather than host. She has said MSG told her in the first interviews that they wanted someone with more hockey knowledge, and that her playing background separated her from the other applicants.
Has Rachel Herzog won an Emmy?
She has an Emmy credit in a college category, and it is worth being precise about which one. MSG’s press release, as carried by Sports Video Group, credits her with an Upper Midwest Emmy for college live sports production as a feature reporter and in-studio analyst, which is a regional student and college award rather than a national Sports Emmy. The same release credits her with a first place at the Broadcast Education Association’s festival for play-by-play color analysis, and two nominations, not wins, from the Sports Video Group. The Devils’ own announcement mentions no awards at all.
Write “Emmy-winning” about her without that context, and you are overstating it by a whole tier. The Upper Midwest chapter’s own published list for 2022 has her as a nominee rather than a recipient, and in a different category, college editor, for an editing composite from St. Cloud State, while the college live sporting event award that year went to a production credited to three other people.
Where is Rachel Herzog from?
Oakdale, Minnesota, in the eastern suburbs of St. Paul. She went to the Hill-Murray School and graduated in 2016, and the Minnesota State High School League wrote about the Devils job when a former Hill-Murray player landed it. Her parents are listed as Mark and Angela Herzog in her college biography, and nothing else about her family is public.
She started at St. Cloud State as a biomedicine major, did that for two years and then changed direction. Her degree was completed in 2022, two years after her playing eligibility ran out, and the student broadcasting outfit she came up through sits inside the university’s mass communications department.
How old is Rachel Herzog?
Rachel Herzog was born on 23 October 1997.
Is Rachel Herzog married?
No publicly confirmed information exists about Rachel Herzog’s relationship status.
What she has volunteered about her life away from the rink is that she cooks. She mentioned loving the Food Network in an interview in October 2024, and in April 2026 MSG built an episode of its Campbell’s Family Table series around her cooking for the broadcast crew.
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