WingsNation.com Survives Two Years
By Nick Seguin
6 years agoThrough ten exciting years, The Nation Network had built a league of sites that captured the minds and attention of fans for six of the seven Canadian NHL teams. On the eve of their tenth anniversary, it was time to expand.
As with all expansion decisions, they had a hard look at where the best place to grow their league would be. Ultimately, they landed on Detroit.
“The passion Red Wings fans have for their team made it an easy choice. The franchise has a storied history, a proud tradition of winning, and a knowledgeable fanbase that cares immensely,” Nation HQ told me.
Getting it going was no easy task. “We were expecting the grind that comes with the launch of any new website and we got it,” HQ said.
Most of that grind fell on then managing editor of the site Jeff Veillette (currently of FaceoffCircle.ca). Jeff pounded out article after article, getting the site up to standard, while recruiting Wings fans who wanted to share their passion for the team. I was one of those recruits.
In that first year, we focused our efforts on getting the little things right, focusing on post-game reports and weekly roundtables. Jeff brought in Brock Seguin of DailyFaceoff to write the pre-game reports and forged a partnership with the Winged Wheel Podcast who was, and still is, the best Red Wings podcast out there.
As Jeff moved on to more responsibilities with The Leafs Nation, Adam Laskaris took over the reigns at Wings Nation. Seeing things from an objective point of view, Adam was able to celebrate what the team was doing well and criticize what was going wrong. He brought the personality and humour to the site that the Nation Network is known for.
A year in, there was still an element of passion that was missing from the site. It was started by Oilers fans in Edmonton and run by Leafs fans in Toronto. That’s when they asked me to take over. HQ did a great job setting us up and Jeff and Adam teed us up perfectly. Now it was up to me to knock it out of the park with passionate, thoughtful, and conversation-generating content.
That was a year ago and boy has the last one been a busy one! We’ve gone through a much needed face-lift, giving the site a more modern look with a better user experience. We’ve grown our online following and our readership, giving a voice and a platform for true Red Wings fans who want to discuss the state and direction of this team. Our talented team of writers includes newcomers like Tom Mitsos and Cameron Kuom (also known as @athanasioulater) while maintaining the quality content from the OGs Brock Seguin and Winged Wheel Pod. We’ve written about the opening of Little Caesars Arena, the Andreas Athanasiou contract debacle, and the improvements of Jonathan Ericsson. We’ve had debates and evaluated prospects.
With critical thought and analytical thinking, we’ve managed to climb our way up the blogging tree to be able to compete with the biggest and best of them. As our content continues to get stronger, we become one of the must-read platforms for Red Wings fans everywhere.
To those that have been here from the start, thank you for being with us on this journey. For those who are just getting here, strap yourselves in tight because we’re in for a bumpy ride with the team in flux and a rebuild on the horizon.
Personally, I can’t wait for the challenge.
So, thanks for reading. Thanks for following. Thanks for chatting. The Red Wings community is an amazing thing and we love talking about this team with all of you.
Below is a list of all of our regular contributors. I didn’t get a chance to recognize everyone above, but they all deserve it. Please give them each a follow and feel free to chat with any of us about the team. We’re always willing to scream share our opinions with you.
Now, onto our terrible twos. Happy second birthday to us.
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