Vancouver Canucks reporter Jason Botchford: A tribute to a great man

VANCOUVER, BC MARCH 12: (EDITORS NOTE: This image has been altered at the request of the Vancouver Canucks.) Members of the Vancouver Canucks (L-R) - Front Row - Jacob Markstrom #25, Ian Clark, Goaltending Coach, Manny Malhotra, Assistant Coach, Newell Brown, Assistant Coach, Jonathan Wall, Senior Director, Hockey Operations & Analytics, Chris Gear, Vice President and General Counsel, Trent Carroll, Chief Operating Officer, Francesco Aquilini, Chairman, Jim Benning, General Manager, John Weisbrod, Assistant General Manager, Stan Smyl, Senior Advisor to General Manager and Director Player Development, Travis Green, Head Coach, Nolan Baumgartner, Assistant Coach and Thatcher Demko #35. (L-R) - Second Row - Ben Brown, Director, Media Relations and Team Operations, Dave Zarn, Assistant Athletic Trainer, Jon Sanderson, Head Athletic Trainer, Jay Beagle #83, Elias Pettersson #40, Brock Boeser #6, Loui Eriksson #21, Alexander Edler #23, Christopher Tanev #8, Brandon Sutter #20, Bo Horvat #53, Antoine Roussel #26, Pat ONeill, Equipment Manager, Brian Hamilton, Assistant Equipment Manager, Mac Stewart, Equipment Assistant, Mike Brown, Senior Manager Team Services. (L-R) - Third Row - Darryl Seward, Video Coach, Glenn Carnegie, Skill Coach, Graeme Poole, Rehabilitation Therapist, Alex Biega #55, Markus Granlund #60, Ryan Spooner #15, Ben Hutton #27, Derrick Pouliot #5, Sven Baertschi #47, Troy Stecher #51, Tyler Motte #64, Nick Addey-Jibb, Athletic Trainer, Bryan Marshall, Strength and Development Coach, Roger Takahashi, Strength and Conditioning Coach. (L-R) Fourth Row - Tim Schaller #59, Guillaume Brisebois #56, Nikolay Goldobin #77, Adam Gaudette #88, Jake Virtanen #18, Josh Leivo #17, Tanner Pearson #70, Ashton Sautner #29 and Luke Schenn #2 pose for their official team photo at Rogers Arena on March 12, 2019 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (Photo by Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images) /

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All of us at The Canuck Way are deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Vancouver Canucks reporter Jason Botchford. We would like to take a moment to honour him for the great man that he was.

He changed the way that fans gathered information about the Vancouver Canucks. He asked the tough questions that were on everyone’s minds, that others may be too shy to ask. He turned the Canucks fanbase into a digital community, and most importantly he broke the barrier between media members and fans.

I’ll never forget the first time I read the Provies. It was a newfound experience for me, with its good mix of analyzing the game, humour, and inside jokes that made readers feel like family. Although I obviously didn’t agree with everything he put out, Jason Botchford is a man whose work should not be forgotten anytime soon.

Canucks fans, players, and fellow media members took to Twitter to offer their condolences to the Botchford family — his wife Kathryn, and their three young children.

I am deeply saddened to hear the news of Jason Botchford’s passing. A true professional and a kind man. My heartfelt condolences to his family
— Elias Pettersson (@_EPettersson) May 1, 2019

Botchford had a relationship with the players that not many members in the media have, and his writing and work on the radio and 1040PatCast truly do belong in the BC Sports Hall of Fame. He is someone I personally looked to for guidance when I was just getting started with covering the Canucks. As Wyatt Arndt said in this Twitter thread, Botchford was gracious to almost every single blogger that ever sent him a tweet or DM on Twitter.

The thing that made Botchford so special in my opinion was his ability to make his readers feel like family. If you read his work you felt like you were having a conversation with him about the team, not that you were simply being fed information. That’s why so many people are mourning the loss of such a great writer — they feel as though they’ve lost a family member.

The truth is, we have lost a family member. We’ve lost a huge member of the Canucks fanbase — probably the most important member of it, too. That’s what makes this so hard for so many of us, especially those of us that had any sort of encounter or interaction with him.

Here is the statement from the Botchford family, courtesy of The Athletic. Obviously, this is an extremely hard time for them — far more than it is for the rest of us. My thoughts are with the Botchford family and those who were closest to him.

Now I would like to allow my fellow Canuck Way editorial staff members to add their thoughts and feelings on Botchford’s passing.

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