Letter Of Intent

It feels like a lot of people’s summers end on different dates – Labour Day is a popular one with families as the kids go back to school, some will follow the sun and treat the 21st as the hard, technical line, and others may draw their line at when they run out of fun stuff to do.

I wouldn’t necessarily say I’ve run out of fun stuff to do, because there’s always something. But last week was definitely my “last week of summer”. I hit the ice with some friends on Labour Day. I saw my summer ball hockey league wrap up it’s season on Tuesday. Wednesday, I watched Toronto FC pull off a massive upset against Nashville. Saturday, I went to Buffalo to play in the Sabres’ HockeyFest ball hockey tournament. Finally, mixed amidst it all, I had a couple hangouts in parks with friends. All signs pointed to today being the start of getting my head fully into the hockey season.

So here we are again, in a familiar space. It’s almost become a bit of a running bit over the years that when I chase something new in my life, I end up relaunching The Faceoff Circle. On the surface it seems absurd to be launching effectively the same website for the fourth time in nineteen years, an act of defiant stubbornness as if one day it will fully accomplish the dreams of teenaged me. Yet, it’s given myself and others a place to discuss new things, work on new skills, and bring us to new places. It has never had total permanence, but it always has purpose, as it will once more.

Once again, we veer into the forest, and it’s a forest that looks a lot different than it did in 2007, 2014, and 2017. The hockey writing landscape is probably the bleakest I’ve ever seen it, and I don’t mean that in a way that discredits the opinions and efforts of those still putting in the work. More so, there just isn’t much work left to find. Beat reporters are fewer and fewer, major platforms have consolidated into oligopolies, and what was once the “blogosphere” appears to be left in the dust, which a few holdovers of the past remaining and shockingly few new writers.

Many have shifted to fighting the uphill battle against the algorithms in the social video, graphic, and podcast spaces, chasing quick hits and followers in the moment while their work is almost instantly lost to history. Sometimes, the work isn’t even really theirs at all, with the rise of what we’ll politely call “model assistance”. The analytics wing of hockey discourse has shifted away from being a hobby club of people brainstorming questions about the game to ask, answer, and debate. Rather, we have arms race of who can make the shiniest percentile chart or vibe-coded stats site that says the same thing as the other twenty sites that are 99% functionally identical.

Honestly, I miss reading people from all corners put deep thought into the games they’re watching, the storylines unfolding in front of them, and the things that make them curious. I miss being that guy, too. So I want to help by joining in.

As I mentioned back in June, I’ve scaled back my work in the hockey operations sphere. Not entirely, but enough to be able to give this my focus and avoid muddied waters while still maintaining resources that will help me speak deeper about the topics that interest me. I’ve spent a lot of the time since then talking to people about what would interest them, reading old feedback forms from followers, catching up to what’s up there, and also trying to enjoy the summer so that I’m not starting the year off in complete brain mush.

Today we lock back in again. What you see right now is not a finished product, but proof that I’m turning on the proverbial stopwatch. With that in mind, I’ll touch on a few points here out of the gate.

Core Goals

There are two parallel thoughts to what I’m setting out to achieve with The Faceoff Circle this time around.

On my end, my ambition is to give my perspective on the parts of Toronto-area hockey I’ve got familiarity with. Essentially, the Leafs organization from top to bottom (including its affiliates and prospect pool), along with local junior hockey and top-level minor hockey as time permits. I’ll touch on other things I see around the sport as I see fit (particularly when they tie back to the local market), but I don’t want to commit to casting a line too big for me to real in.

Outside of myself, I would like this to be a spot that helps encourage people to get back into hockey writing / blogging, both from a perspective of consumption and their own production. I’d like this to be a place that proves that this approach can attract an audience still, and inspires others to do the same. I’d like to be able to use this spot to amplify up-and-coming voices whose work interests me.

Boots On The Ground

As anyone who follows my personal Instagram knows, I love to be out and about, and I don’t expect that to change just because I have the ability to spend more time at a desk if I want to. I live for the rink. Even as someone who’s writing style hasn’t ever relied on quotes or interviews, there’s so much you pick up by being at the rink and seeing what happens behind the play, in both a literal and figurative sense.

My goal as of right now is to make this my first season since 2018/19 where I’m at Coca-Cola Coliseum for most of the year, following along with the Marlies. It’s also to be at a bunch of junior games, at a bunch of minor hockey games, and if all goes well, mix in some Leafs time as well. I’m figuring out all the specifics of this now – some already settled, some in progress. It’s ambitious, particularly when you’re reaching out to people and organizations with “hey, I have an unlaunched platform and I haven’t seriously leaned into this in half a decade, but trust me here”. But I’m confident we’ll get there, brick by brick.

Monetization

An obvious elephant in the room is that this site is going to have to pull in an income if I’m to make it my sole focus for the long term. I’d like to get there. This is being worked out too.

The last time I ran the site it primarily ran on a paywalled article model, and while I appreciated everyone who supported it, it mostly just led to arguments about why you’d pay for me over a mainstream outlet doing similar. Practically speaking, I understand that fully. As of right now I plan to keep the written work as public as possible, likely with some ad support, with the possibility of paywalling things like data and more detailed prospect scouting reports. This will be worked on in the coming weeks and months.

It’s possible I bring back the idea of merch as well, as that was successful for me once upon a time, though I’d probably have to refresh the catalogue from ten years ago. Managing the intrusiveness of monetization will be a priority as well.

If there’s anyone reading this that might want to collaborate via sponsorship of the site, making my search for balance here a lot easier – definitely contact me and we’ll figure something out.

Feature Rollout

Obviously, the site’s a little empty right now. What you see is not where we’re going to finish. Portal pages are being built for the teams and levels that I plan on putting my attention too, giving places to find simple, easy to consume, yet relevant fast facts without relying on AI summaries or anything of the like. Obviously, lots of content will have to be written, but we’ll look forward towards relevant news rather that writing backwards.

For those who want to read some of what was on here the last time around, I’ve kept 66 of my favourite articles from the last rendition of The Faceoff Circle for the archives, and will be porting some of my favourites from last year’s transition / practice blog, Hockey In Paranoid Times, this week as well. A few of the embeds may need some freshening up, so bear with me there.

Other Formats

“Are you going to do a podcast?” or “Are you going to do a YouTube show?” or something along those lines has been a popular question handed to me for the past dozen or so years now, and hasn’t really slowed down. I’m pretty much the only hockey media-ish voice with a following that has never swum those seas in a serious way. To be honest, I’m still not prioritizing those ideas. I want to get the written side down first before giving this any sort of serious thought. If I did either, I probably wouldn’t want to be the one who is doing the actual hosting.

Meanwhile, if you are a creator in this sense, I will most likely come chat with you on your platform. I’m more than happy to be a guest and yap about whatever you want to talk about – it’s always a lot of fun and each appearance is practice for the next one that I can always use. Give me a shout if this is something we can help each other out with – I’m always listening.

Let’s Talk

I want to hear from you if any of this has you intrigued in any way – be it interest in reading or collaborating, ideas for how I can make this a useful platform, or even skepticism that steers me to a useful second thought.

The easiest way to contact me is probably via email at jeff@veillette.me, though places like Twitter/X, Bluesky, Instagram, and LinkedIn are available too. I’ll have a contact form up on here soon too, hopefully by the end of the week, if you’d rather use that. For now, the Leafs just made a likely inconsequential transaction, so I better write my first post that’s actually related to hockey.