I used to find the guy annoying and cringey....
However over time I realized how common it is (dare I say acceptable?) for people in the media to make up rumours for the clicks/views or to attack players and/or their families and it really bothered me. Gene Principe doesn't do anything like that; quite the opposite: he's very respectful when he's interviewing players and he comes off as a genuinely nice person.
That alone is enough to put him in my good books, and that's coming from a Flames fan.