Daniels grew up impacting the game of hockey rather than merely calling it. From the age of 11 until the completion of his college career, he worked as a hockey official on the ice. He dabbled in sports and began his play-by-play career in 1988 with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was hired because no Canadian team at the time had an official scorer. He was given the task of calling Major League Baseball games for CBC, which is how he came to do play-by-play for Blue Jays' games. He left Canada to work in the American Hockey League before being hired by the NHL. He called games for the Chicago Wolves and Rochester Americans before moving up to the big league level. In 2000-01, he called games for the Colorado Avalanche after previous jobs included working with the Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs. In 2001-02, he became the first Canadian broadcaster to call an entire season of NHL hockey. That year, he called the Leaf's games for the entire season except for two periods of one game each. The other announcer, Brian Duffie, took over for those games. After that season, Daniels stayed with the team through the end of their playoff run. In 2003-04, he called 49 games for the Anaheim Ducks after previously working with the Ducks, Vancouver Canucks, and Toronto Maple Leafs.