Introducing The Hockey News Archive – 76 Years of History

A treasure trove of hockey history that's years in the making is now available with The Hockey News Archive. Deputy publisher and creative director Erika Vanderveer shares the process of digitizing more than 2,600 issues.

More than 1,800 days ago, our vision for The Hockey News’ digital Archive began in earnest. But the desire to have such an incredible resource started well before that for many of us here at The Hockey News.

On an almost daily basis, a staffer at our office would ask if anyone remembered a certain cover story, article, or event. Someone would pipe up – usually the very knowledgeable senior editor Brian Costello – and try to direct them to the proper resource.

They would then need to sift through the large leather-bound books that held the historical pages of The Hockey News magazines. This was often an arduous process: the older the issue, the more delicate the pages were, so it was a difficult and time-consuming task.

Sometimes, you’d get lucky in your search – other times, you’d spend hours until you finally found the particular article you were looking for. But now, after more than 10,000 working hours spread across a handful of multiple processes and key players, we are thrilled to officially launch the long-anticipated The Hockey News Archive.

This new addition of content will, of course, save our staff countless hours of research, but what we're especially excited about is that you, as an avid reader and THN subscriber, hockey connoisseur or expert, can also dive deep for yourself and find exactly what you’re looking for in a matter of a few clicks. 

The Archive has 2,640 issues and counting, about 156,000 articles for individual reading, and more than 103,000 historical pages scanned manually, so there’s a treasure trove of exclusive content at your fingertips.

The Archive site design was created for ease of use and personalized curation based on each unique visitor. The Archive brings together more than 76 years of hockey history and puts it into a robust and user-friendly interface that will continue growing with each new magazine issue The Hockey News publishes. 

There are a few issues and sub-brand magazines we’re currently working to add and will continue to process as we continue expanding our Archive. But we see the Archive as a living, breathing entity that will only improve after we launch the Archive today.

Throughout the Archive, you’ll find hidden gems, from breaking news articles of the past to iconic photoshoots we once did with the likes of Bobby Orr, Mike Bossy, Wayne Gretzky, Sidney Crosby, Alex Ovechkin, Connor McDavid and now, Connor Bedard. 

For me personally, as a goaltender who has played at the NCAA, European Women’s Hockey League and Canadian Women’s Hockey

League levels, the process of creating the Archive allowed me to reminisce about childhood memories as I scrolled through the pages of The Hockey News featuring Patrick Roy in his rookie days through winning the cup in Montreal and Colorado. I hope others will experience the same types of fond memories as they scroll through our Archive and rediscover fascinating stories from the past.

With that said, everyone at The Hockey News invites you to subscribe and amplify your experience as a hockey fan. No other hockey media source has the history The Hockey News has, and we’re beyond excited to share this exclusive content with you at THN.com/Archive.

- Erika Vanderveer, Deputy Publisher & Creative Director, The Hockey News