Pat Hickey Joins The Hockey News as Part of New Team Sites

The Hockey News is adding 32 NHL team sites in 2023, with four operational at TheHockeyNews.com/teams. Pat Hickey is the featured writer of the Montreal Canadiens team site, which will be operational in the coming days.

I have enjoyed the shortest retirement in history.

Last Friday, I filed my farewell column for the Montreal Gazette, ending a career in journalism which spanned nearly 58 years.

Three hours later, an old friend, The Hockey News owner Graeme Roustan, called and asked me if I was still interested in writing about hockey. When I said yes, he offered me the opportunity to produce a website devoted to the Canadiens.

It didn’t take long to accept his offer. I left the Gazette with mixed feelings. Postmedia, the Gazette’s parent company, had announced a series of layoffs which left a number of younger journalists in jeopardy, I chose to retire voluntarily to save one of those jobs.

But I knew I had more stories to tell, and I welcomed the chance to continue chronicling the reconstruction of an iconic franchise which had fallen into disrepair.

The new management team of Jeff Gorton, Kent Hughes and coach Marty St-Louis are turning this franchise around. They have laid the groundwork for a bright future with a lineup anchored by young offensive stars Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki and an impressive cast of rookie defensemen.

Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, Arber Xhekaj, Justin Barron and Johnathan Kovacevic represent the most talented group of young defencemen since Patrice Brisebois, Mathieu Schneider, Eric Desjardins, Lyle Odelein and Kevin Haller helped win the Canadiens’ last Stanley Cup in 1993.

I’m looking forward to monitoring the team’s progress and providing readers with an insight into what’s happening but, more importantly, how and why.

I’m joining The Hockey News as a freelancer and, in that respect, my career has come full circle.

In the 1960s, The Hockey News had a regular feature highlighting a prospect, usually a junior player. In the days before email and the internet, these profiles were delivered by mail, and occasionally they didn’t arrive in time for publication.

That’s when The Hockey News editor Charlie Halpin turned to me, I was covering university hockey as a young reporter, and I produced profiles on future NHL players Bob Berry, Larry Carriere and Bernie Wolfe.

The payment for each article was $15 plus a gift pack from Old Spice which sponsored the feature.

My friend Graeme assured me my compensation will be adjusted for inflation, but I’d probably do it for nothing if he threw in an Old Spice gift pack.

The Hockey News is adding 32 NHL team sites, available at TheHockeyNews.com/teams and SportsIllustrated.com.NHL. The first four – the Toronto Maple Leafs, Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues and Pittsburgh Penguins – are now operational. 

Stan Fischler is the featured writer of the New York Islanders team site, and Pat Hickey is the featured writer of the Montreal Canadiens team site. Both sites are also expected to be operational in the coming days, along with the Florida Panthers. The plan is have every team's site operational in 2023.