Yes, I’m joining The Athletic but no I’m not going to spend the next 1,000 words telling you why.

Consider it my first act of insubordination.

All of the great reasons have been taken anyway.

You’ve already heard the stories. Writers have chronicled the soul-crushing deadlines at newspapers. You know of that medium’s unending pursuit of clicks which has helped drive the quantity-over-quality climate threatening the industry.

Arrivals to The Athletic have celebrated here like it’s a new world.

Apparently freed, they have promised, and delivered, their best work with engrossing deep dives featuring layers and subtlety.

Great for them. Actually, us.

But honestly, I loved working at newspapers. The higher-ups gave me the flexibility and inspiration required to create a media space which was organic, colourful, roomy, relevant and utterly, uniquely Vancouver.

Now, I’m going to elevate it all, taking it to the next level.

The Provies are gone but what’s coming will be grander, a better looker, more thoughtful and thorough and unquestionably more bad ass.

It just needs a name.

Eventually, you will decide if this is the place for the best Canucks coverage. That’s subjective.

What’s not? This is where all of the fun will be had.

The Athletic Vancouver’s ecosystem will be unlike any of the platform’s other verticals. There will be opinions, analysis, great reporting, scoops, speculation, feuds, rumours, peaks-behind-curtains and a whole lot of shenanigans.

There will be nothing like it in Vancouver or anywhere else.

It is going to be a ride.

And the more people in Vancouver who subscribe, the bigger and more glorious this ride is going to get.

Best idea for a name change

The Provys.

Best moment I knew I was going to The Athletic

I’m in a meeting urging the higher-ups to cut some responsibilities so I have more post-game minutes for The Provies, the most read item we had and it was that by miles.

One higher-up is having none of it. He is pressing me to wedge mundane blockquotes into newspaper stories in what are known as “quoters,” historically poor performers online.

I tell him I should be able to out-write anything Daniel Sedin says after a game anyway. I advise them all to let me skip these “quoter” obligations.

This is what was volleyed back:

“Thing is. I see people asking for Daniel Sedin’s autograph. They care about what he says. I don’t see anyone asking for yours.”

Damn.

I couldn’t even argue it.

I just hope The Athletic subscribers aren’t expecting many Daniel Sedin quotes.

Or his autograph.

Best moment I knew I was going to The Athletic II

An email blast directed at me, among others, on July 1 because a Jay Beagle story wasn’t online quickly enough.

Imagine getting worked up over a Jay Beagle quick hit — or lack thereof — and concluding this is what’s important.

Part of me wants to spend this entire season never doing a single Jay Beagle story.

Biggest disappointment

I had hoped an early assignment for The Athletic would be the usually robust Penticton Young Stars tournament.

The Canucks prospects roster is the best it has been in the tournament’s history. It’s oozing promise.

There’s just one problem.

The Canucks only have a single team to play, the Winnipeg Jets.

Both the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames bailed, choosing to keep their prospects in Red Deer for a game of their own.

It is being viewed by some as an Alberta power move.

Since 2014, the Alberta teams have been pushing for this tournament to move to Red Deer.

It’s believed they offered to alternate the event’s location every year. Their pitch would have had it in Penticton one year and Red Deer the next.

The Canucks balked and we’re left with a situation that really isn’t great for anyone.

Somehow, I think these teams are going to be able to work out a solution by next year.

Best defence

One thing which kept me awake at night this summer was the Canucks’ plan to return a blueline intact which collectively scored 21 goals last season.

Aren’t the Canucks concerned about these guys?

GM Jim Benning: “I thought the first 20 games our defence played well. They were moving the puck up and we were getting the puck out of our own end fast and through the neutral zone.

“I thought we were fine.

“We do have other defencemen coming, like Quinn Hughes, but right now these are the guys we have and they have to be better.

“I’m confident as a group they can get the job done.”

Best nugget

Benning said he’d like to see his team take two extra defencemen into the season.

“In Vancouver, for whatever the reasons, we get to our 10th, 11th and even 12th defenceman,” Benning said. “If you look around the Western Conference, at teams like LA, San Jose and even Calgary, it looks like the norm here so we’ll carry eight D.”

Best exchange

Would the Canucks ever consider Slava Voynov?

Benning: “Probably not.”

Too much, uhm, baggage?

Benning: “Yes.”

Biggest crisis

When the Canucks season ended it was another year sunk by a massive run of man-games lost to injury.

It was nothing new.

The Canucks are the only team in the league to finish in the top five for three straight years in a calculation called “cap hit of injured players.”

The Canucks spent two weeks after the season studying the reasons.

After a forensic investigation on what happened, they concluded only six per cent of last year’s man-games lost were due to what they could consider “preventable” issues.

Best rumour

In hockey circles, the word is Canucks ownership nudged management, advising it needed to check in on the Erik Karlsson situation to see what it would take to land the superstar.

This would certainly fit a narrative that it’s a new world at Rogers Arena without Trevor Linden around, one where Canucks owners apparently have more influence on hockey decisions.

The reality, however, is much different.

Benning and John Weisbrod have been chasing big names for years. This was just more of the same.

In just the past two years alone, the Canucks “checked in” on Tyson Barrie, Milan Lucic, Evander Kane, Noah Hanifin, Jeff Skinner, Steven Stamkos and PK Subban. The public pursuit of the last two players on the list led to Benning being fined by the league for tampering.

Benning and Weisbrod want to be in on everything they can so they spend a lot time making deals with themselves, one person in the NHL put it.

Calling about Karlsson fits into the ongoing theme.

To this point, few around the NHL believe the Canucks were ever really a player for Karlsson even though they do have the pieces to make it happen.

There are a couple of reasons why.

One, most don’t think the Canucks would be willing to give up the valuable young players or high picks it would take to get it done. They have to know they can’t upend the rebuild for a 28-year-old on an expiring contract and it doesn’t matter how good he is.

Two, many don’t think Karlsson would waive his no-trade clause for the Canucks, so there’s that.

Best please confirm

We’re hearing Linden may have left the Canucks because he wanted a slower rebuild than others in the organization.

Have you heard the same? Please confirm.

Best plan

Leading up to my move, I shuffled around some strategy with colleagues Brough and Halford.

How about adding several regular elements here which would be similar in tone to things in the old Kurtenblog?

This would bring the good times.

Best keeping score

IMAC won — phil verret (@BasketballPhil) August 28, 2018

He may have won, to be honest.

Both of us applied for the Postmedia buyout. He got one, I was denied.

That puts him thousands and thousands of dollars ahead of me and it hit me like a gut punch.

My only solace?

I will choose to take it as a positive I was considered that valuable.

Best feud

I saw this idea a few times last week.

Wouldn’t it be something if @botchford joined @Sportsnet650. The debates between you and @AndrewWalker650 would be the best in this city — Jordan Moss (@jmoss16) August 29, 2018

How long could it last?

A month? A week?

I know what I’d bring up to start every single show and it’s this:

If A&W had his way, Vancouver would never have drafted Hughes.

While it WON’T be this simple…. if we’re talking about #Canucks shipping 7th overall for Hanifin… I do that in a HEARTBEAT. — Andrew Walker (@AndrewWalker650) May 31, 2018

Never forget.

Best dig

@TheStanchion has been better at the job for 2 years now. Provies are more than fine. — Mike Johnson (@MJVanCity) August 28, 2018

Oh, that hurts.

But have you considered I’d take Wyatt with me?

It was one of my first demands.

Best relief

At least this isn’t happening.

Best back pat

working with me has been Botch’s lottery ticket for years now! — Jeff Paterson (@patersonjeff) August 29, 2018

Best use of nah

I pleaded with the Boat Captain to keep my future off the air last week. He instead made a meal out of it for days giving me ongoing anxiety.

My text: You mean you have to ask on air? If you can just skip that part…

BOAT CAPN: Nah, it’s out there. Listeners will want to know, expect me to ask. Like I said, say what you want. Cost of being co-host this week I’m afraid.

It happened. The man “nah’d” me.

Best request

Best use of prayer hands

The Provies and the Pat Cast made it possible to stay interested in the Canucks for the last few seasons. I hope they both continue to exist in some capacity 🙏 @botchford @patersonjeff — Aaron Schulze (@SchulzePANow) August 29, 2018

There are already plans to make the Patcast bigger than ever.

Best what happened?

Did we get JPat’s goal prediction column this summer?

Best summary

The @botchford saga really ending off a summer that included Quinn Hughes, GM JIM BENNING doing what he does best on July 1st, a Linden firing, the return of the skate jersey and @TRana87 announcing he’s venturing into the podcast world for the people. — Kyle (@kylebhawan) August 30, 2018

Best call to arms

They don’t believe in you or this market.

They look at you like you’re soft, entitled, fairweather hockey fans who can’t cope with losing and don’t have the stomach for a rebuild.

They don’t think you’ll buy tickets, jerseys or, heck, subscriptions to online sports platforms.

They’re wrong.

Earlier this month, the Canucks’ season-ticket renewal rate crept over 90 per cent and into the top 10 in the league. The NHL average is less than 80 per cent.

For the Canucks, it was more than a six per cent increase year over year, which is good for fifth in annual growth.

It qualifies as momentum.

The 10 per cent of season tickets which weren’t renewed have already been sold and then some. There will be fewer available single-game tickets this season than last.

This, for a team which remains waist deep in the sludge it still has to march through to get out of the on-ice mess it’s been in for most of the past five years.

This, in a city where people understand the team could still get worse before it gets significantly better.

Are things perfect in Vancouver?

Hardly.

There will still be empty seats. There will be nights it seems like people can’t give tickets away.

But the Canucks have remained in the top 10 in revenue and ticket sales even as the on-ice product swan dived and prices remained flat for three years.

In those three seasons, the Canucks collected just 217 points. The only team with fewer is Vegas and the Knights played in just one of the three years.

It is this kind of losing which was supposed to bring the organization to its knees. But doomsday hasn’t arrived and the interest in the club is again trending up.

Truth is, this is an explosive hockey market lying in the weeds with smart, resilient and patient fans.

Consider last season when the Canucks went from 14th in jersey sales to fifth. Call it the Brock Boeser effect.

The fans so desperately want great players here and a wonderful team again.

That last part actually may not happen for a while yet.

But at The Athletic, you will get wonderfully original content to keep you busy while you wait.

And wait.

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