from Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star,

George Stroumboulopoulos won’t return as host of Hockey Night in Canada next season, sources tell the Star.

His replacement will be the man he replaced. Industry insiders say Ron MacLean is expected to return to the show’s No. 1 seat just two seasons after Stroumboulopoulos was hired with much fanfare in the wake of Rogers’ $5.2-billion acquisition of NHL broadcasting rights. Prior to that, MacLean occupied the job from 1986 until 2014. Since then, he has hosted Sunday night Hometown Hockey broadcasts and worked Saturdays alongside Don Cherry on Coach’s Corner. It’s expected he will continue those roles in addition to resuming the main HNIC hosting gig — the highest-profile position in Canadian sports broadcasting.

The ouster of Stroumboulopoulos marks a strategic about-face for Rogers, which sublicenses Hockey Night in Canada to CBC. In 2014, executives remade the iconic Saturday night show while speaking of the need to bring it to a younger demographic.

“We want to get a new breed of Canadian fans that get passionate about the games,” Scott Moore, president of Sportsnet and NHL properties, told reporters after Stroumboulopoulos’s hiring was announced in 2014. “I think George does that.

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