TSN has hired outspoken Phoenix Coyotes forward Jeremy Roenick as a hockey analyst for the Stanley Cup playoffs, beginning April 11, and, looking ahead to the baseball season, renewed its rights to air Blue Jays games through 2010.

The 18-year NHL veteran, famous for his no-holds-barred comments about the NHL lockout, will be in-studio for six nights during the first round of the playoffs and will also appear via satellite on the 90-minute NHL on TSN Stanley Cup Playoff Preview show. Roenick will work alongside host James Duthie and commentators Dave Hodge and Tie Domi.

‘I’ve always wanted to work in Canada,’ Roenick said in a release. ‘Now, it’ll just be off the ice instead of on it.’

Roenick has been a regular guest on TSN’s daily sports talk show Off the Record, and has also appeared on network specials including this year’s NHL on TSN Fantasy Draft Special.

‘As seen from past appearances on TSN, Jeremy has a natural rapport with our broadcast team and he certainly is a favorite with our viewers,’ said Mark Milliere, executive producer, news and NHL on TSN.

TSN has rights to the first three rounds of the playoffs – although games with Canadian teams air on CBC – and will announce its broadcast schedule on April 8, following the end of the regular season.

In other sports news, TSN has renewed its contract with the Toronto Blue Jays through 2010 and will cover a total of 21 games this year, starting with a spring training match on Thursday against the New York Yankees. The new deal covers 80 games over the next four years and marks a return of Jays training to the sports channel, which it has not carried since 2001. All of the games will air in HD, a first for TSN, again anchored by Rod Black and Pat Tabler. Jays on TSN is produced by Scott Higgins and directed by Richard Wells.

The channel’s cross-town rival Rogers Sportsnet, meanwhile, has nabbed the rights to 116 games this year, and will kick off its coverage with the regular season opener when the Jays face the Tigers in Detroit on April 2. Sportsnet will also air the home opener against the Kansas City Royals on April 9.

Sportsnet says its new contract, which also runs to 2010, will bring in as many as 125 Jays games per season. ‘We’re looking forward to another successful season by the Jays,’ said president Doug Beeforth in a release on Friday. ‘The Jays are the number one summer property.’

CBC is reportedly in talks to air a remaining eight Jays games this season, though no deal has been announced. Rogers Communications, the parent of Sportsnet, owns both the Blue Jays and their home stadium, Rogers Centre.