Ron MacLean makes major announcement regarding his status on Hockey Night in Canada

In an article he wrote for "Between the Posts" Berger mentioned in his first paragraph that it sounded like only Elliotte Friedman would be returning to the Saturday night staple for a lot of Canadian hockey fans:

"It was an alarming bit of speculation from a media source familiar to everyone in the Canadian sports television industry: 'We may not recognize the Hockey Night In Canada panel next season,'" Berger's source claimed. "Based on what I'm told, only Elliotte Friedman is safe from the changes and cost�cutting measures on the horizon."

A week and a half later, it seems like that source, and those rumours have been debunked, as John Shannon tweeted earlier today that Ron MacLean has announced he will be returning for another year, from a charity event for Smilezone Foundation, MacLean made his announcement pretty clear.

As of for the statuses of Kevin Bieksa, Kelly Hrudey, and Jennifer Botterill and whether or not they will be returning, one has to assume that if MacLean is back, his counterparts may return as well. However nothing has been announced for any of the aforementioned trio.

It would be a massive shake-up for CBC to completely change the layout of Hockey Night in Canada but at least as of today we know that Ron MacLean will be returning once more in his usual capacity.