Herein, we report the coordination of a zinc hydride complex, bearing a β-diketiminate ligand, to a 3d 9 nickel centre derived from [Ni(CO)Cp]2. The resulting -complex contains a Ni-H-Zn motif and is paramagnetic with a formal 19-electron count at nickel. We analyse the bonding in the Ni-H-Zn unit by computational methods and describe preliminary findings that hints at the involvement of this species in catalytic H/D-exchange and catalytic dehydrocoupling to form Zn-Zn bonds.