Mark Messier joins ESPN as studio analyst for NHL coverage

Six-time Stanley Cup champion Mark Messier is joining ESPN on a multiyear agreement to contribute to the network's NHL coverage beginning next season.

Messier will be a studio analyst when NHL games return to ABC, ESPN, ESPN+ and Hulu for the 2021-22 season.

"The game of hockey, and the NHL, have afforded me enormous opportunity, success and experiences on the ice and in my life," Messier said in a statement announcing the news. "My passion for the game is as strong as it has ever been and I am looking forward to sharing that passion, plus my insights and analysis with the sport's incredible fans. The NHL is beginning a new era with ESPN and The Walt Disney Company -- with an exciting, evolving game and phenomenally talented players -- and I am thrilled to be a part of the team."

Messier was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007 after a 25-year NHL career with the Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks. He is ninth all time with 694 goals and third all time with 1,887 points. He was a two time Hart Trophy winner (1990, '92) as the NHL's MVP and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the NHL's playoff MVP in 1984. He won five Stanley Cups (1983-84, 1984-85, 1986-87, 1987-88, 1989-90) with the Oilers and one with the Rangers, helping the franchise end a 54-year title drought in 1994.

"Mark has been one of the NHL's biggest and most iconic stars, and we are ecstatic to have him be a large part of our upcoming hockey coverage," Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president and executive editor, production, said in the statement. "As a six-time Stanley Cup Champion, he will bring incredible insight, knowledge and analysis to ESPN and The Walt Disney Company that will both resonate with fans, and connect more and more of them to the game and to the league."

ESPN and the NHL announced a seven-year multiplatform deal in March, returning hockey to ESPN for the first time since 2004.