Hockey Sense marks first anniversary: What to expect in Year 2
THANK YOU, SUBSCRIBERS!
One year ago today, Hockey Sense was born. I was never really sure what to expect from it and even less sure how I’d gauge success. I’m still trying to sort that out, but one thing I do know is that I have been blown away by the generosity and the engagement from my subscribers. I feel successful if I’m serving you and maximizing your financial commitment to the site.
Things have changed a bit since I first started writing in this space. As I learned early on, the hope of making Hockey Sense a full-time endeavor and my sole focus was not going to be sustainable. That is one of the reasons, but certainly not the only reason, I signed on with Daily Faceoff last fall. As a result some draft and prospect coverage including my rankings have moved over there.
In the months since taking on that additional role, I’ve been trying to navigate how to best serve subscribers that graciously stayed on. So many of you have stuck by and continued to support the site through the many changes and I cannot appreciate that enough. As I’ve been navigating the balance of having multiple regular writing jobs on top of Hockey Sense, I’ve felt the need to reassess the path forward.
Most things will remain the same. For instance, the weekly roundup newsletters will resume Wednesday and continue weekly covering a variety of topics across the hockey landscape. While I initially planned to write twice per week, I learned that providing one especially comprehensive newsletter took about as much time and in the end it doesn’t clog up your inbox with Hockey Sense emails. I hope you found that useful. The Talking Hockey Sense podcast will also continue on a weekly rotation as well and it will remain free. I am exploring other ways to expand that particular content as well.
I have also been exploring other ways to maximize your subscription. While my rankings content will remain at Daily Faceoff, I am working on ways to provide some shoulder content specific to Hockey Sense subscribers that complements the rankings pieces on DFO. I plan to provide a deeper look into things like process and getting even more specific about why certain players were ranked where. I also plan to provide a lot more on Hockey Sense when I get to team system rankings, which will come after the NHL trade deadline, with deeper dives on individual farm systems.
On top of that, I’m also looking to do some bigger research projects and deep dives on specific players, groups of players, specific organizations and draft/development trends. Those types of things will be less frequent because of how time intensive they are, but it’s something I hope to have up and running soon.
This last year has not been easy by any means, but it has been rewarding. I feel very thankful to every single person who has subscribed to the site, who has read the newsletters, listened to the podcast and just generally supported the work I have done. You all have given me the huge boost I’ve needed to not give up on my passion and hopefully in return I’ve been able to provide unique insight you’ve found valuable.
Being on my own has been scary and challenging, but you all have made it easier to handle. I want to keep working every day to make sure you’re getting fair value for your patronage. If I ever fall short, please let me know. I’m also always open to feedback from my subscribers. You can just respond to the email newsletters or reach out via hockeysensewithcp@gmail.com and those will get directly to me.
If you haven’t subscribed yet, take some time to poke around the site. Read some of the free pieces and consider signing on to get all new content coming your way soon.
I’ll be back with a big Hockey Sense newsletter Wednesday to kick off Year 2 properly. Until then, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for a challenging, memorable and rewarding Year 1.
— Chris
P.S. Here are some of the highlights from Year 1: