Welcome Sara. Welcome Jesse.

And welcome, finally, fans of the Hurricanes and Golden Knights. Great to have you aboard. (And if you haven’t signed up yet, click here for 31 percent off a one-year subscription.)

When I joined The Athletic almost two years ago, the Maple Leafs were just the second NHL team we had coverage for. Last season at this time, that had just increased to 15 teams — including eight in the U.S. and seven in Canada — with Pittsburgh recently added to the fold.

Beginning today, we will have full-time beat coverage of every single NHL team, just in time for the 2018-19 season to open on Wednesday. That means we plan to be at every NHL game, all 1,271 during the regular season and roughly 100 more in the playoffs.

It’s been a remarkable journey from there to here, and it wouldn’t have been possible without hockey fans signing up for subscriptions en masse right from the beginning. NHL coverage hasn’t always been a priority at large media outlets, especially in the U.S., but it has been a driving force for us, to the extent it made sense to provide high-end analysis and reporting on all 31 teams this season.

This will be a great benefit not only to fans in those local markets, but anyone who wants in-depth coverage of the league as a whole. Our existing subscribers can now read deep dives on any team in the league, so when major news happens in Tampa or Denver or Winnipeg, we will be there in a way no outlet has ever attempted.

Our growth has not been without challenges. Finding the right writers in each market wasn’t always easy, not with how severe cutbacks have been at many local newspapers. Some NHL teams haven’t been covered on a daily basis in years.

It’s terrific we have been able to round out our coverage by adding Sara Civian (Carolina) and Jesse Granger (Vegas), two talented young writers who represent the future of NHL reporting, along with the likes of Sean Shapiro (Dallas), Murat Ates (Winnipeg), Max Bultman (Detroit), Shayna Goldman (Rangers), Ryan Clark (Colorado), Scott Wheeler (Toronto) and many others on our staff.

These past few months have been our biggest ever as a company, even through the offseasons of many of our teams. We hope with the games finally about to start in the NHL and NBA, October will continue that trend.

We are not finished expanding and will be investing more in hockey coverage as readers continue to sign up. More writers. More travel. More in-depth storytelling and analysis that avoids hot takes and click bait.

If you’re still on the fence about subscribing, we understand. I encourage you to read this piece, which explains why we have a paywall on most of our content. It is, in short, a business model that has been needed for some time in our industry.

In celebration of adding full coverage of the Hurricanes and Golden Knights today, we’re pleased to offer this great deal for new subscribers. Come join us. Come help us continue to grow.

And let’s drop the puck.

(Main photo: Greg Thompson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)