Pierre McGuire explains his excitement and why he joined Senators

He's the quirky, ultra-knowledgable analyst that just about everyone in the hockey world has an opinion on, and he's officially taking his talents to Canada's capital city. 

Former NBC and TSN analyst Pierre McGuire, a fixture on national broadcasts since 2006, was officially hired earlier today by the Ottawa Senators as Senior VP of Player Development. It's not the first go-around for McGuire with the Senators, as the 59 year old previously worked with the team as an assistant coach during the 1995-96 season. 

“I’m super-pumped. We’re going to have some fun,” said McGuire. “I see my role as being there to help (Dorion), helping the hockey operations department, player development and being somebody who can help the organization. It’s important to have lots of information when you make decisions and I’d like to think I’d be very good at gathering information.

“The biggest thing is just bring my experience and knowledge of the league. I’ve been in the league for over 30 years. Over the last 23 years, I’ve had pretty much unfettered access to the league in terms of players and management decisions. That’s something that’s pretty helpful. I felt my conversations with Eugene and Pierre have been very fruitful and I’ve enjoyed them very much.”

McGuire is being brought aboard to assist Senators GM Pierre Dorion, who made it clear upon the hiring that the former will be reporting right to him. For McGuire, it's Dorion's vision for the Senators that made the choice to take the role an easy one for him. 

“(Dorion’s) vision for the team is really strong and I hope I can be that sounding board and that’s the plan. He’s got other people internally that he can bounce things off of as well,” McGuire said. “The amateur scouting department, led by Trent Mann, is phenomenal, their development program in Belleville led by Troy Mann has been great. There’s lots of people internally.

“I’d like to think I can play a part in that.”

McGuire got his start in the NHL as a scout with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and even served as an assistant coach under Scotty Bowman during their 1992 Stanley Cup victory. He began his broadcasting career in 1997. 

"I’ve been really bullish on two teams in the league: One is the New York Rangers and the other is Ottawa. Just because they’ve had a vision for how they want to build their team,” said McGuire. “With Ottawa, they’re building the team the right away. They’ve got star players, a power forward (Brady) Tkachuk, a tremendous defenceman in (Thomas) Chabot. They’ve made some amazing acquisitions, Connor Brown is a tremendous player and Josh Norris has been tremendous.

“You look at Nikita Zaitsev and what he’s done. Artem Zub was a fantastic signing and Austin Watson’s character has been tremendous. From outside, they’ve brought in good people and on the inside they’ve done some really good things drafting and developing when you look at guys like (Drake) Batherson and (Alex) Formenton. Last summer, they stole the draft with (Tim) Stuetzle, Jake Sanderson and Tyler Kleven. They had an amazing draft.”