This is an exciting day at The Athletic and Athlétique Montréal, and especially for me.

That’s because I finally get to introduce you to our exciting team of writers and editors that will be working tirelessly to bring you the best sports coverage in the city, something they will begin doing as of our official launch on Monday.

You should already know by now that Marc Antoine Godin will be the senior writer and managing editor of Athlétique Montréal, but I’m happy to announce that supporting him in that role will be Emna Achour as associate editor.

Emna worked for me a few years ago when I was at LNH.com, and I immediately saw her potential, even if it took her some time to see it for herself. She came to work for us before she even finished university and quickly became our lead writer covering not only the Canadiens but several major NHL events, including the Stanley Cup Final, meaning she covered a Final two years into her career. It took me 15 years to cover my first one.

Emna simply shined.

When she decided to leave LNH.com to travel the world, I told her it might be difficult to get back into sports media in light of how the industry was cutting back everywhere.

She came back to Montreal recently after having covered the Australian Open, French Open and the IIHF World Hockey Championships in Russia and France during her travels, and wouldn’t you know it, I had a job waiting for her. I couldn’t be happier.

Emna will be the editorial nerve centre of Athlétique Montréal and also contribute to our Canadiens coverage, handling some games and writing features. She is someone I feel people will quickly become very familiar with.

Working with Achour as an editor is Marc Dumont, a name that is already very familiar to hockey fans in this city. He has been working for five years with Habs Eyes on the Prize, probably the most popular Canadiens blog on the Internet. He has been grooming himself all that time for an opportunity just like this, and I am so happy we will get to benefit from everything Marc has learned over the years.

In addition to being an editor, Marc will be our primary Laval Rocket reporter, covering the Canadiens AHL affiliate that is moving to the suburbs this season. I’m very excited about what Marc has planned in terms of coverage, and I think you should be as well.

Now for our contributors.

The day after every Canadiens game we will have a day after column, one in English and one in French, and both of them should already be familiar to many of our readers.

The English one will be written by TSN 690 radio host Mitch Melnick, who is bringing his excellent Canadiens blog, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Game, to The Athletic. I don’t need to tell you about the stature Mitch holds in the Montreal sports landscape, but to have him writing for us is a huge honour for me.

It means a lot to Mitch as well, as he explains so eloquently.

In French, we will have a very different, yet equally important contribution from Olivier Bouchard, a longtime hockey data journalist. I first began reading Olivier on his blog, En attendant les Nordiques, where he would break down every Canadiens game from every statistical angle imaginable. Much like Mitch’s column, Olivier’s work will provide a perspective on the game the night before that you probably hadn’t considered before.

Mitch is not the only Montreal sports legend who will be writing for us.

Serge Touchette, longtime baseball writer for the Le Journal de Montréal, will be writing a weekly column for the French site about whatever he wants. It will probably focus on the Canadiens more often than not, but Serge has carte blanche with me because he is such an excellent writer. The word flair gets tossed around a little too casually for my liking, but if there is one thing Serge has as a writer, it is flair, and it oozes from every word he puts on a page.

Rounding out our hockey coverage will be Robyn Flynn of TSN 690 and CJAD 800, who will be writing about Les Canadiennes of the CWHL. Robyn has been covering women’s hockey in Montreal for seven years, and no one in this city is better suited to tell that team’s stories than she is. Telling those stories is important to me, so women’s hockey will always have a presence on The Athletic Montreal and Athlétique Montréal. Marc and Emna will be providing our women’s hockey coverage in French.

Now, you may have noticed this announcement is hockey heavy. That’s because we are trying to focus our resources on covering the biggest game in town, but we won’t be completely ignoring the Impact and the Alouettes.

The hope is to have a comprehensive coverage plan in place for both teams at the start of next season. Not only is it difficult for us to cover them properly now, when we’re just starting out, it is also tough to come in at this point in their respective seasons.

But the Impact and Alouettes will have a presence on this site immediately.

Lloyd Barker, a former Impact player and one of the foremost soccer analysts in this country, let alone Montreal, will be writing a weekly column on the Impact. His insights are more informed than anyone else in this city. We will be translating Lloyd’s columns into French as well.

For the Alouettes, Joey Alfieri of TSN 690 will be writing weekly as well, exploring one aspect of the team that needs fixing or that is going particularly well, and getting into the nuts and bolts details of it. His column will also be translated into French.

So that’s it for now, our team at The Athletic/Athlétique Montréal. I can’t wait to start displaying their extraordinary talents on your screens as of Monday.