Babcock coached the Detroit Red Wings to the Stanley Cup in 2008 and is 700-418-164 with 19 ties in 17 seasons as an NHL coach for the Red Wings, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and Toronto Maple Leafs. He's 90-74 in 164 Stanley Cup Playoff games, also guiding the 2003 Mighty Ducks and 2009 Red Wings to the Stanley Cup Final.
He was fired as coach of the Maple Leafs on Nov. 20, 2019.
"When I first started doing the NHL in 2006, Pierre (McGuire, NHL analyst) and I would go to Mike's office before the many Detroit games we would produce," NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood said. "We would sit in that little office of his and have conversations about hockey and about life. He was a fascinating and insightful man and I think he'll be a great addition to the team."
Flood said NBC Sports looked at using Babcock for analysis for the playoffs last season.
"Mike reached out to us through representation during the playoffs last year and originally we were going to bring him in during the playoffs, but because of COVID protocols and how tight we had the building sealed up we decided to wait until this year," Flood said. "We let it rest for a while and then started the dialogue again and quickly came to an agreement. Mike will be in and ready to go."
Former NHL forwards Ryan Callahan and Dominic Moore will also debut as studio analysts, joining Keith Jones, Anson Carter and Patrick Sharp.
Kathryn Tappen and Liam McHugh return as studio hosts.
Kenny Albert, Brendan Burke and John Forslund headline the play-by-play commentators with analysts Eddie Olczyk, Brian Boucher, Pierre McGuire, AJ Mleczko and Kendall Coyne Schofield.
Longtime NBC lead NHL play-by-play broadcaster Mike "Doc" Emrick retired at the end of last season.
NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen contributed to this report
