Pierre McGuire part of NHL's 'Stanley Cup Central' YouTube show

On Tuesday, the NHL announced a YouTube show called Stanley Cup Central that will air Monday-Thursday throughout the Conference Semifinals and Finals.

The second screen experience will focus on one game per evening, beginning with Panthers-Maple Leafs on Tuesday. Among all of the other individuals that will be featured, one stood out from the pack: former NBC NHL analyst Pierre McGuire.

Here’s more from the NHL’s release.

Stanley Cup Central will offer a unique viewing experience with fan-favorite NHL Blockie visualizations and interactive game elements, developed with NHL EDGE (puck and player tracking) data and Beyond Sports technology. Each show will also feature betting odds and breakdowns of the betting lines as the game progresses. 

A rotating cast of hosts including Lauren Jbara, Alexa Landestoy, Jonny Lazarus and NHL Fantasy reporter Anna Dua will lend their insights and banter to one Playoff game per night, as well as pre- and post-game coverage. Longtime NHL insider Pierre McGuire will join each night to offer analysis and commentary.

McGuire’s return in this capacity is a bit surprising. He spent years as a fixture on NBC’s NHL coverage (for better and worse) before joining the Ottawa Senators front office in the summer of 2021 after the NHL’s rights moved to ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery. McGuire departed the Senators less than a year later and joined Sportsnet as an NHL Draft analyst.

And now, McGuire is back in front of American viewers, on a YouTube show seemingly targeted at younger fans. A trailer posted recently mentioned that betting, analytics, and social media content will be featured on the show. I don’t know how well McGuire will fit in with that sort of content, but this almost seems like a way to ease him back into covering the league for one of its American media partners in the fall.