Pierre McGuire and NBC insist the analyst will not be removed from the network's No. 1 broadcast team.
A report from The Athletic indicated earlier this week that McGuire would no longer be a part of NBC Sports' No. 1 hockey broadcast team alongside Doc Emrick and Eddie Olczyk.
Per impeccable source, Pierre McGuire has been removed from NBC Sports' No. 1 hockey team, to be replaced by Brian Boucher.
— Rick Carpiniello (@RickCarpiniello) September 4, 2019
Regarding the previous tweet, Pierre McGuire is still going to be doing games for NBC. But Brian Boucher will be on the No. 1 team with Doc Emrick and Eddie Olczyk
— Rick Carpiniello (@RickCarpiniello) September 4, 2019
McGuire and NBC firmly deny that report.
“Somebody, I don’t know who in New York, wrote something that was very inaccurate,” McGuire told TSN 690 on Thursday. “In fact, we all at NBC got our work schedules yesterday and today I got an elongated work schedule from NBC and also spoke with major-domo Sam Flood, who’s really been responsible for creating the NHL on NBC. He was just like: ‘I don’t know how all this started, I don’t know where it came from. I’m apologizing. This is what the schedule is. We went through this last year, you went to the West to help with the ratings,’ and we had gigantic numbers both in the East and the West last year and I enjoyed doing it. I really liked it because when you were doing my job for almost 16 years of staying in the East all the time — or virtually all the time — you saw the other teams on TV, but you didn’t spend time with those players very often unless they were on the East Coast swing. You never really got past Minnesota, so now I get a chance to see every player in the league and talk to them and it’s been great and I really appreciated it."
NBC echoed these comments in a statement in reference to The Athletic's report.
"Identical to last year, we will begin the season with Doc, Eddie and Brian working the early Wednesday Night Hockey game, with Pierre anchoring the late game of the doubleheader," the statement read, according to the Sports Business Journal.
NBC Sports: "Identical to last year, we will begin the season with Doc, Eddie and Brian working the early Wednesday Night Hockey game, with Pierre anchoring the late game of the doubleheader." https://t.co/GwTQRH0SOf
— John Ourand (@Ourand_SBJ) September 4, 2019
McGuire, 58, joined NBC Sports in 2006 and has been the channel's inside the glass reporter.
He used to work for The Sports Network (TSN) in Canada. He also spent time as a scout for the Senators and coached the Hartford Whalers for one season before being fired in 1994.