News

The Professional Hockey Writers Association is pleased to announce that the Philadelphia Flyers and the Dallas Stars are the 2018 winners of the Dick Dillman Award, presented annually by the PHWA to honor the work of outstanding NHL public relations staffs in each conference.

Both the Flyers and the Stars previously won the Dillman award three season ago. In fact, this is the third time in six years that the Flyers have earned the honors, in large part because of the continued diligent work of Zack Hill, the team’s senior director of communications, and his chief lieutenants Joe Siville (director of public relations) and Brian Smith (manager of Broadcasting and Media Services.

The runner-up in the Eastern Conference was the Carolina Hurricanes, led by Mike Sundheim, the team’s long vice president of communications and team services.

Read More →

New Jersey Devils center Brian Boyle, Florida Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo and Carolina Hurricanes center Jordan Staal have been named finalists for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy.

Members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association (PHWA) vote on the trophy which is awarded “to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey,”

Each local chapter of the PHWA nominates a player at the end of the regular season. The top three vote-getters are selected as finalists for the trophy.

Read More →

Ken Hitchcock was a coach who shared his vast knowledge of the game of hockey, far beyond the routine of normal head coach media availabilities. In doing so, he taught many of us at the Professional Hockey Writers Association nuances, tenets and characteristics of the game that we may never have had access to.

We learned more, so our readers learned more.

When you clicked on your recorder to ask ‘Hitch’ about a player, a situation, or often something going on a Conference away, he rewarded you with wisdom and humour, and a conversation that made your article better — every single time. And although it was always us asking the questions and him answering, Hitchcock never made you feel that he knew more about hockey than you, even though that was clearly the case.

We at the PHWA extend our gratitude and well wishes as Ken Hitchcock announces his retirement from coaching. The game will go on without you Hitch, but the press conferences won’t be as much fun.

– PHWA President Mark Spector

The Boston Chapter of the PHWA (Professional Hockey Writers Association), with a major assist from the philanthropic generosity of the Boston Bruins Foundation, is proud to announce that the $25,000 raised from this season’s Bruins media meals at TD Garden will be donated to the Travis Roy Foundation in the memory of recently passed Boston Herald scribe and longtime PHWA member Steve Harris.

The Travis Roy Foundation is one that Harris cared passionately about and was the perfect choice to commemorate a longstanding, dedicated member of the hockey world. The check presentation took place ahead of tonight’s Bruins/Senators game at TD Garden as part of the team’s regular season awards presentation.

As writers and chroniclers of the game, so many of us took those seats near the front of our local junior or college team’s bus – seated just behind the coaches, but not back with the players. We were blessed to be part of the experience of traveling hockey’s highways, as we all sought to find a lasting place in the game.

The bus was hockey’s safe place. A place where everyone — coach, writer, player, trainer, manager — paid the same dues. We studied there, watched movies there, napped there, and got to know who each other were beyond the role that put us in that seat.

Read More →

The Professional Hockey Writers Association has voted by an overwhelming margin to reveal each voter’s individual ballot following the 2018 National Hockey League Awards ceremony.

After an internal debate that stretched over many months, PHWA Members voted 81.3% in favour of full transparency, in a run-off conducted over a two-week period this March. This decision will result in the publication of each of the approximately 170 ballots, within days of the NHL Awards ceremony in Las Vegas in late June.

Following in the footsteps our brethren with the Baseball Writers Association of America, the time has come for hockey writers to be more publicly accountable for their voting patterns.

Read More →