Printed and based out of Montreal since its very beginnings, The Hockey News officially moved its offices to downtown Toronto in 1979.
From the time of the move until 2003, printing mainly took place in a cluster of three southwestern Ontario cities (Hamilton, Pickering and Toronto) as well as some of the duties remaining in Montreal.
With Bob McKenzie at the helm, The Hockey News first introduced several "Special Issues," many of which remain staples of the magazine to this day, including Season and Draft Preview editions and the annual Yearbook.
Like with the previous change in the editor, Dryden's tenure brought with it many new special editions of the publication, including Future Watch, People of Power and Influence and Season in Review.
Although many changes were undertaken from the nascent days of the publication until 2003, The Hockey News had remained, at its base, a tabloid newspaper the entire duration of that period.
This restructuring was overseen by Jason Kay, who replaced Dryden in 2001 and remains the brand's editor in chief to this day.
In November 2014, Transcontinental sold The Hockey News and 14 other consumer magazines to Quebecor Media's Groupe TVA for $55.5 million.
[5] In March 2020, six days after the NHL announced the suspension of the regular season due to COVID-19, THN suspended publication and laid off eight full time staff, including editor-in-chief Jason Kay and senior writer Ryan Kennedy, while assigning two contract workers to update content on the magazine's website.
• Ultimate Pool Guide: In-depth reports on each of the NHL's 32 teams' depth charts and prospects rankings as well as stat projections for players of fantasy hockey.
Issues such as Future Watch, Draft Preview and the more-recent Prospects Unlimited are widely quoted within media circles and even used by some NHL teams.
[10] The rankings were determined by a panel of judges that included past and present NHL general managers, coaches and players, as well some of the most eminent members of hockey media.
[12] Their list again featured Gretzky as the top player, leading the top 10 players, in order: Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, Mario Lemieux, Maurice Richard, Doug Harvey, Jean Beliveau, Bobby Hull, Terry Sawchuk and Eddie Shore.
Ten years later, in 2007, THN came out with a revised list in The Top 60 Since 1967, which limited the rankings to players solely of the NHL's post-expansion era.
In addition to accounting for the 10 years that had passed since previous rankings, editor-in-chief Jason Kay explained that the list was revised to exclude the pre-expansion era because most analysts are not able to put the early NHL into sufficient context, adding that the original Top 50 publication "relied heavily on historical and statistical information to bring players of bygone eras into perspective.