Casting Call, and some Self-Indulgence

 

We rarely do housekeeping posts at CanucksArmy. We generally prefer for this blog to remain uncluttered and pure with only unfiltered, opinionated, numbers based takes on all things Canucks hockey. But we’ll make an exception today, becasue we’re reshuffling the decks somewhat and are looking for new talent.

We need you to join the (Canucks)Army, so read on past the jump.

Yesterday I informed Nations HQ about my plan to resign as the Managing Editor of CanucksArmy.com effective the final week of July. But don’t worry dear readers, this isn’t bad news. I’ve taken a job editing the news over at the Score Inc. (not to be confused with Sportsnet360), so I’ll still be cranking out content. Also I’m not leaving Canucks Army at all, I’ll still be writing and posting and reading and commenting at this site pretty damn regularly. Essentially I’m just taking a step back from the day-to-day management of the site, but I still plan on being as committed to this community as ever.

I’m not the only one from our cast of regular voices who is moving on and deeper into the media world. Our own Patrick Johnston has recently taken a job with The Province as a mobile champion of sorts, and he’s unlikely to be seen in our fair corner of the internet with as much regularity going forward. A hearty congratulations to Patrick, who has been among our most consistent, reliable and insightful commentators over the past two years…

I find it extremely gratifying to know that our site has drawn the attention, not only of Canucks fans, but of hiring managers and others in the media world. We can legitimately claim that CanucksArmy.com is now a "stepping stone" that talented, intelligent young journalists can use on their way to bigger opportunities. I hope that some of you reading these words fit that profile, and take up the torch going forward.

To that end, we’re going to hold a casting call over the rest of the summer to try and identify talented voices who fit in with what we’ve been doing at CanucksArmy over the past two and a half years. If you’re passionate about hockey, numbers, sports media, and writing, we want to hear from you. We’re looking to add at least two new voices to the site this summer so e-mail a cover letter and a resume to thom.drance@gmail.com by July 19th.

Now if you’ll permit me a bit of self-indulgence.

Over the past two years I’ve written 922 distinct posts at this site (923 including this one), and edited countless more from our team. This site wouldn’t be what it is today without the dedication, hard work and quality I’ve been able to count on from Jeff Angus, Cam Charron, Patrick Johnston, Jordan Clarke, Dimitri Filipovic, the mysterious PetBugs and Blake Murphy. In the past I’ve also been able to rely on quality work from Marda Miller, John Cullen, Remy Greer, Kavi Lehdar, Justin Morisette, Trevor Preslikowski, Matt Henderson, Alix Wright, Jeff Paterson, Wyatt Arndt and Austin Watson. I owe all of these people my sincerest thanks for their efforts and contributions over the years.

An extra special thank you to papa bear Cam Davie. Davie first recruited me and lobbied for me to take over the site, even when he was in the top position. I couldn’t have asked for a more supportive, kinder, wiser blog wife. He is the best dude I’ve ever known, truly.

I also need to thank the Nations team: Wanye, Jay, Kent, Jason, Brian, Jeff and Jonathan for their support and guidance over the years. I ran this blog at a breakneck pace, with no regard for my personal health or sanity, for twenty-fourish months. The hard-work was key, but so was the professional development the Nations team provided me with.

Finally there’s a wide variety of "rival bloggers" and assorted media types who’ve had a role in promoting our work, and have been accessible and supportive of us over the years. To the likes of: Derek Jory, Mike Halford, Jason Brough, Jason Botchford, Wyatt Arndt (I forgot to thank him in the first edition of this post, so he gets thanked twice), Erik Rolfsen, Paul Chapman, Jonathan MacDonald, Scott Lewis, Justin Bourne, Kevin Woodley, Jesse Spector, Sean Gentille, Harrison Mooney, Daniel Wagner, Scott Brown, Iain Macintyre, Roberto Luongo, Greg Wyshynski, Katie Baker, Dan Murphy, and our old pal Nardwuar – thank you.

But mostly, thank you to all of our readers. There’s so many more of you now than when we first started, and the comment sections are increasingly active and interesting. Over the past four or five months especially this site has really transformed into the blog I always wanted to run, and it had nothing to do with the content and everything to do with the way our community of readers engaged with the site. Of all that we’ve done here over the past two seasons, the fact that so many Canucks fans have come to enjoy our work, and check our site regularly is the thing I take the most pride in.

Going forward there’s still a lot to look forward to. We’ll have more posts from Cam Charron going forward, Dimitri Filipovic will be stepping up and bringing his fastball, we’ll still have our massive prospect profile series this August. Also I’ll still be writing two or three times weekly, so it’s not like this is goodbye!

As the media landscape continues to evolve, CanucksArmy.com has been there to take advantage, out work everybody, and consistently bring you some of the best Canucks coverage on the web over the past two seasons. We remain committed to that mission statement and hope you stick with us, because we’re just getting started!