George Stroumboulopoulos announced as the new face of Hockey Night in Canada

The changes have officially started at Hockey Night in Canada, with ace interviewer George Stroumboulopoulos taking over from Ron McLean as the new face of the franchise.

Rogers Communications, which wrestled HNIC away from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation last November, announced its new host at a press conference in Toronto. The conference came with some friendly advice from McLean, who will see his role shift. After shaking hands with Stroumboulopoulos, McLean said: “George … don’t screw this up, it’s a big show.”

Stroumboulopoulos, who has spent the past 10 years hosting his own talk show on CBC, will join Sportsnet’s Daren Millard and Jeff Marek as the new faces of Hockey Night in Canada. McLean and Don Cherry will still appear on the Saturday night show with their wildly popular Coach’s Corner segment.

Sportsnet bought the NHL Canadian broadcasting rights in a huge, 12-year, $5.2 billion deal last fall. It has since promised changes, including games being broadcast on different channels during the week, as well as new technology designed to make watching hockey easier on mobile devices. Hockey Night in Canada will continue to air on its long-time CBC home on Saturday night, but Rogers will now control the editorial side of the show.

McLean might be out as the main HNIC host, but Rogers has announced that he will host a new Sunday hockey program that is still in development.

Stroumboulopoulos will leave his award-winning talk show, originally titled The Hour, and later known as Stroumboulopoulos Tonight, to concentrate on Hockey Night in Canada. First surfacing on MuchMusic, the 41-year-old has proven himself one of the most skilled interviewers in the business. He identifies as a major Montreal Canadians fan, which, let’s face it, is far less disturbing that pledging one’s allegiance to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

There was no announcement as to whether Rogers will be turning the bulk of HNIC play-by-play duties over to its own team (headed by Gord Miller and Chris Cuthbert) or whether it will rely on the CBC’s Jim Hughson and legendary Bob Cole.

If it’s the latter, and Hughson continues to call all the big games, one can only hope that Sportsnet either disables the microphone of his colour man Craig Simpson, or, better yet, develops an App to mute his nonstop ramblings, seeing as how he can’t seem to get it through his head that his job is to shut his constantly flapping pie-hole when the play starts.