The Hockey News


The Hockey News, commonly abbreviated to THN, is a Canadian-based ice hockey magazine. The Hockey News was founded in 1947 by Ken McKenzie and Will Côté and has since become the most recognized hockey publication in North America. The magazine has a readership of 225,000 people per issue, while the magazine's website counts two million total readers. It is the top-selling hockey magazine in North America and is available through subscription in North America and digitally to the rest of the world. The Hockey News is also available at many newsstands in North America.
Previously owned by Transcontinental Media and the TVA Group, The Hockey News was purchased by Roustan Media on January 26, 2018.

History

The Hockey News was founded in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1947 by Ken McKenzie and Will Côté. It is the second-oldest publication in North America devoted to covering one sport following only Ring Magazine, which was founded in 1922. Readership developed quickly in the infancy of The Hockey News with circulation reaching 20,000 copies within the first year of the publication's history; increasing to 50,000 by the year 1967 – when the National Hockey League expanded from six franchises to 12 – before reaching 100,000 a half-decade later in 1972.
McKenzie assumed full ownership of The Hockey News in 1968 after buying out founding partner Côté. He remained in control of the publication until selling it to Whitney Communications of New York in 1973. Despite the sale, McKenzie stayed with The Hockey News as its publisher until 1980.
Toward the end of McKenzie's run with The Hockey News, some major overhauls began to take place. Printed and based out of Montreal since its very beginnings, The Hockey News officially moved its offices to downtown Toronto in 1979. From the time of the move until 2003, printing mainly took place in a cluster of three southwestern Ontario cities as well as some of the duties remaining in Montreal. In 2003, the printing of the magazine moved to Owen Sound, Ontario.
At this time Tom Murray was brought on as the new editor. Under his stewardship The Hockey News began to take on more of an edge and also began the use of colour on some pages of the publication for the first time. Award-winning Canadian journalist Bob McKenzie – no relation to founder Ken McKenzie – took over from Murray as editor in 1982. During this time the editorial slant became even tougher. With Bob McKenzie at the helm, The Hockey News first introduced several "Special Issues," many of which remain staples of the magazine to this day, including Season and Draft Preview editions and the annual Yearbook.
Whitney Communications sold The Hockey News to Transcontinental, Inc. in 1986. Five years later, Steve Dryden was brought in to replace the departing Bob McKenzie as editor. Like with the previous change in the editor, Dryden's tenure brought with it many new special editions of the publication, including Future Watch, People of Power and Influence and Season in Review. Although many changes were undertaken from the nascent days of the publication until 2003, The Hockey News had remained, at its base, a tabloid newspaper the entire duration of that period. In 2003, the move was made to being a full-colour publication, complete with full bleeds and stapled pages. This restructuring was overseen by Jason Kay, who replaced Dryden in 2001 and remains the brand's editor in chief to this day. These changes were built upon when, in 2007, The Hockey News moved to be a full-blown magazine, with a glossy cover and 8 x 10-inch pages.
In November 2014, Transcontinental sold The Hockey News and 14 other consumer magazines to Quebecor Media's Groupe TVA for $55.5 million. This made it a sister to the Quebecois sports network TVA Sports, which had become the national French-language rightsholder of the NHL in Canada.. It was in turn sold to W. Graeme Roustan in 2018. In January 2020, The Hockey News announced an editorial partnership with Sports Illustrated, under which content from The Hockey News would be featured on SI.com, and the two would collaborate on a network of team-specific websites.

Brand Extensions

The Hockey News has remained primarily a magazine-based publication since the move to the format in 2007. However, forays have been made into different platforms over the years. First, in the 1980s and 1990s – while The Hockey News was still a tabloid newspaper – they launched The Hockey News TV Show on Canada's two major broadcasters, first TSN and then SportsNet. The Hockey News has also published several books over the years, including Hockey's Young Guns, The Pursuit of Hockeyness and We Are The Champions. In addition, The Hockey News had a radio show with Sirius XM radio before moving to their own platform with The Hockey News Podcast, their current audio/video-based offering.

Digital media

The Hockey News' website was launched in the latter stages of the 1990s. The publication became the first hockey-only application on the market when it launched its mobile platform in 2009. Two years later, a tablet app would be added to the original mobile setup. The Hockey News also has a strong social media presence with 292,000 followers on Twitter, 288,000 likes on Facebook and 29,000 followers on Instagram.

Notable Special Issues

• Draft Preview: A breakdown of the NHL's top prospects headed into each June's NHL entry draft.
• Season Preview: Awards predictions, standings prognostications and more.
• Ultimate Pool Guide: In-depth reports on each of the NHL's 31 teams' depth charts and prospects rankings as well as stat projections for players of fantasy hockey.
• Yearbook: The ultimate breakdown of every aspect of the NHL, including: team breakdowns, franchise information, predictions, and analysis of each team.
• Money and Power: An inside look at the business of hockey and an in-depth report on the most powerful and influential movers and shakers in the hockey world.

In popular culture

In the 1977 American sports comedy film, Slap Shot, character Reggie 'Reg' Dunlop, portrayed by Paul Newman, tells an opponent "We'll send you so far down in the minors not even The Hockey News will be able to find you."

Awards and recognition

Over the years The Hockey News became known at 'The Bible of Hockey,' a name stemming from the fact that it was the unquestioned source for information regarding the hockey world, especially prior to the ubiquitousness of the internet and the evolution of sports-only cable networks. Even in modern times, The Hockey News is considered the go-to source for hockey information owing to the fact that it is 'all hockey, all the time,' and is in circulation year-round, even during the summer months when other publications see a lull in hockey coverage. Unlike other Canadian publications which cover hockey, The Hockey News has no connection with the NHL allowing for more editorial latitude. They are particularly well-recognized for their coverage of prospects – younger players who've yet to make it to the professional ranks. Issues such as Future Watch, Draft Preview and the more-recent Prospects Unlimited are widely quoted within media circles and even used by some NHL teams.
Hockey News founder Ken McKenzie was recognized by the Hockey Hall of Fame with the Elmer Ferguson Award for excellence in hockey journalism in 1997. Bob McKenzie, editor of The Hockey News between 1982 and 1991, was awarded the same distinction in 2015.

All-time NHL player rankings

In 1997, The Hockey News commemorated their 50th anniversary with a list of the 50 top NHL players of all time. The rankings, which heralded Wayne Gretzky as the best player in the history of the NHL, were determined by a panel of judges that included past and present NHL general managers, coaches and players, as well some of the most eminent members of hockey media. The following year, THN expanded the list and published it as a book: The Top 100 NHL Players of All Time. Their list again featured Gretzky as the top player. The top 10 players, in order, were: Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, Mario Lemieux, Maurice Richard, Doug Harvey, Jean Beliveau, Bobby Hull, Terry Sawchuk and Eddie Shore.
Ten years later, in 2007, THN came out with a list of revised list in The Top 60 Since 1967, which limited the rankings to players solely of the NHL's post-expansion era. In addition to accounting for the 10 years that had passed since previous rankings, editor-in-chief Jason Kay explained that the list was revised to exclude the pre-expansion era because most analysts are not able to put the early NHL into sufficient context, adding that the original Top 50 publication "relied heavily on historical and statistical information to bring players of bygone eras into perspective."
In 2008, the THN staff participated in the selection of the IIHF Centennial All-Star Team.
In 2010, THN released a revised list of the top 100 players of all time, except this time it was top 20 players per position.

The Top 100 NHL Players of All Time

Players in bold were active when the list was published in early 1998. Flags of players born outside of Canada are included next to their names.
  1. Wayne Gretzky
  2. Bobby Orr
  3. Gordie Howe
  4. Mario Lemieux
  5. Maurice Richard
  6. Doug Harvey
  7. Jean Beliveau
  8. Bobby Hull
  9. Terry Sawchuk
  10. Eddie Shore
  11. Guy Lafleur
  12. Mark Messier
  13. Jacques Plante
  14. Ray Bourque
  15. Howie Morenz
  16. Glenn Hall
  17. Stan Mikita
  18. Phil Esposito
  19. Denis Potvin
  20. Mike Bossy
  21. Ted Lindsay
  22. Patrick Roy
  23. Red Kelly
  24. Bobby Clarke
  25. Larry Robinson
  26. Ken Dryden
  27. Frank Mahovlich
  28. Milt Schmidt
  29. Paul Coffey
  30. Henri Richard
  31. Bryan Trottier
  32. Dickie Moore
  33. Newsy Lalonde
  34. Syl Apps
  35. Bill Durnan
  36. Charlie Conacher
  37. Jaromir Jagr
  38. Marcel Dionne
  39. Joe Malone
  40. Chris Chelios
  41. Dit Clapper
  42. Bernie Geoffrion
  43. Tim Horton
  44. Bill Cook
  45. Johnny Bucyk
  46. George Hainsworth
  47. Gilbert Perreault
  48. Max Bentley
  49. Brad Park
  50. Jari Kurri
  51. Nels Stewart
  52. King Clancy
  53. Bill Cowley
  54. Eric Lindros
  55. Busher Jackson
  56. Peter Stastny
  57. Ted Kennedy
  58. Andy Bathgate
  59. Pierre Pilote
  60. Turk Broda
  61. Frank Boucher
  62. Cy Denneny
  63. Bernie Parent
  64. Brett Hull
  65. Aurel Joliat
  66. Toe Blake
  67. Frank Brimsek
  68. Elmer Lach
  69. Dave Keon
  70. Grant Fuhr
  71. Brian Leetch
  72. Earl Seibert
  73. Doug Bentley''
  74. Borje Salming
  75. Georges Vezina
  76. Charlie Gardiner
  77. Clint Benedict
  78. Steve Yzerman
  79. Tony Esposito
  80. Billy Smith
  81. Serge Savard
  82. Alex Delvecchio
  83. Babe Dye
  84. Lorne Chabot
  85. Sid Abel
  86. Bob Gainey
  87. Johnny Bower
  88. Sprague Cleghorn
  89. Mike Gartner
  90. Norm Ullman
  91. Sweeney Schriner
  92. Joe Primeau
  93. Darryl Sittler
  94. Joe Sakic
  95. Dominik Hasek
  96. Babe Pratt
  97. Jack Stewart
  98. Yvan Cournoyer
  99. Bill Gadsby
  100. Frank Nighbor

    Staff

Editor in Chief - Jason Kay; Senior Editor - Brian Costello; Senior Writers - Ken Campbell, Ryan Kennedy, Matt Larkin; Managing Editor - Edward Fraser; Features Editor - Sam McCaig; Art Director - Shea Berencsi
People who have held the editor in chief position in the past include TSN broadcaster Bob McKenzie and TSN producer Steve Dryden.