The Left Wing Lock

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I never met Matthew Wuest in person, but he meant a lot to me. It wasn’t until he landed his first full time reporter job with the Metro Halifax that I even knew what he looked like.

A Virtual Partnership

We met on a hockey message board talking about Red Wings prospects while he was running the Detroit section for a website called hockeysfuture.com. The year was 1998 and after I posted that I was about to attend my first Red Wings training camp in Traverse City, MI he asked me to do some scouting.

I had never done anything like that but he sent me some scouting forms he had created and asked me to fill them out for each of the Red Wings prospects. So there I was sitting in the stands at Centre I.C.E. Arena with a clipboard and pen filling out these forms and rating abilities of Detroit’s sparse assortment of talent that included the likes of Maxim Kuznetsov, Daryl LapLante and Jesse Wallin. Matt used my ratings to help shape the profiles of the up-and-coming talent and while I didn’t really know what I was doing in those early years he encouraged me to continue.

Shortly after my first scouting experience, Matt ended his tenure at hockeysfuture to co-found a website on the Rivals network called thewingedwheel.com. The site pre-dated the blogosphere by years but had three main contributors in Wuest (prospects), Barry Craft (Red Wings analysis) and myself (pre and post game recaps). It also had large message board following with lots of heated discussions through the years. The site built quite a following and was one of the most visited sites on the entire Rivals network.

Just as thewingedwheel was cranking up, Rivals announced that it was closing down the hockey section of its network to focus on college sports. While it would have been easy to just restart the site on another server, Matt wanted to do something different. There were plenty of competitor site cropping up with similar formats but there was a giant void in news about Red Wings prospects. The mainstream media in Detroit only drafted articles about prospects who were close to the NHL. Able to combine his love of junior hockey and Red Wings, Matt launched redwingscentral.com which focused entirely on Red Wings prospects. It became the one stop shop for Detroit prospect news with outstanding profiles of each player and articles from scouts and players alike. He built the trust of the Wings scouting staff who he tapped into to help build the prospect rankings and profiles.

With the launch of redwingscentral, Matt asked me to stay on as a contributor and help mostly with training camp and the NHL prospect tournament. After my first foray into scouting training camp back in 1998, I was able to secure a press pass which gave me unique access. Eventually with some coaching from Matt, I started interviewing players and coaches and providing a daily photo gallery. The website stats for redwingscentral during the weeks of training camp were astonishing with thousands of hits and lots of discussion on the message boards. Matt believed in keeping the main stream media honest and challenging them to do a better job providing information to fans and redwingscentral did just that. The site evolved into a resource used by fans, scouts and media alike evening garnering the attention of TSN.

Redwingscentral was Matt’s site, but he liked to refer to me as the number one contributor. He’d often tap me to review player profiles or help with draft day facts in addition to full length features from time to time. My favorite times were our debates over MSN messenger in the early days and then later Email about prospect rankings for his twice a year report. Matt listened to me and wanted my input given my years of attending training camp and NHL prospect tournament. I knew things were bad health wise last season when he asked me to help him with his weekly redwingscentral prospect report. I didn’t realize at the time that that would be our last major project together.

Computer Geek Turned Journalist

When I met Matt, he was a computer programmer with no journalism background. He eventually quit his programming job to pursue a journalism full time. Hockey was his passion and he was the truest fan of the game there was. He was always looking for ways to provide better information especially when it came to his favorite team, the Red Wings.

With redwingscentral on the rise and starting to draw attention from news sources, Matt became known as a Red Wings prospects expert. He was passionate about the RWC rankings and was always working hard to improve them. When the Hockey News started releasing periodic rankings of team prospects Matt was at least three years into his rankings and had built his network of Detroit scouts. So when the first set of THN Red Wings rankings came out, he took issue with the order. Matt wrote a letter to the editor arguing his case for his ranking and a series of exchanges turned into his first free lance journalism opportunity. He wrote several stories for THN ranking draft prospects and even the Red Wings prospects over the course of several years.

It was a huge accomplishment for a guy who started out as a computer programmer and it gave him confidence that he could successfully transition his career. Matt started working as a sports reporter for a local Halifax news paper shortly after finishing his degree. He had a heavy focus on junior hockey including the Halifax Mooseheads of the QMJHL but focused on all local sports. He continued to run redwingscentral in his spare time because RWC was “a true love in his life.”

Cap Cruncher

With RWC running in the background, Matt was always looking for ways to provide information to the hard core fan because he was one himself. At one point he added a feature to the site called “cap calculator” which had specific contract data for Red Wings fans. the feature became incredibly popular among the site regulars and it eventually spawned capgeek.com which featured salary cap data and analysis from across the NHL.

Part of the genius of capgeek was its easy to use format which allowed fans the ability to play the role of general manager with the most up to salary and contract data available anywhere. While the features of the site were incredible, Matt worked hard to build his information network to ensure he had the best data. He was always open to ideas and suggestions to improve what was offered from the many users of the site. The site was used by casual fans, media, player agents and general managers.

Despite capgeeks huge success, Matt never contemplated cashing in and selling his hugely popular site. It was a labor of love just like RWC was and he didn’t want to let go. When it became clear he was losing the battle with cancer and “had to get his affairs in order”, he had multiple offers to help him maintain it (including myself). With his health failing, Matt opted to shut the site down seeing no clear cut option to maintain the integrity of what he had built. You have to respect a man who made little to no money off a widely popular site and refused to sell it knowing the buyer could completely change what he created.

Friend and Mentor

While Matt and I never actually spoke or even met, he was a friend and a mentor. We had our laughs over instant messages and Emails and even eventually Twitter. He was a humble guy who would have squirmed at being called a pioneer for his work on capgeek. When he was named to THN ‘100 People of Power and Influence’, I teased him over Email asking him if he was too important to Email me back. He sheepishly responded to my ribbing and wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about. He was just producing something he as a fan of hockey was interested in.

His work on capgeek, RWC, and thewingedwheel have left a lasting impact today. Many of these sites were precursors to the blogs that exist everywhere and Matt’s digital media work was likely an inspiration for many. Personally, he shaped me as writer / reporter / scout and encouraged me to continue growing. When his battle with colon cancer started, he transitioned me to my own blog so that I would have a place to continue my hockey writing and analysis. Matt made sure I was taken care of long before his health started to fail.

He and I often talked about keeping the mainstream media honest by pushing for new and better stories. That is what I always strive to do in my features and articles. Matt pushed me to do my first in person interview and when I figured out I knew more than the average reporter it only helped me gain confidence. We pushed each other to produce the best content we could while keeping connected the demands of the fanbase.

Matt was an intensely private person which you could figure out by finding no pictures of him anywhere RWC or capgeek. He shied away from public attention, but loved it when his websites grew in popularity and respect. His battle with colon cancer was a long and filled with twists and turns. He didn’t keep me up to date on all of it, but when he Emailed me in September I knew time was running short. Asking me to remain silent, he never complained about it but at one point he did mention he never thought he would have to deal with colon cancer at his age (at least 15 years before the suggested screening age). Matt didn’t want his illness to become public, but he did sell “Armchair GM” T-Shirts on capgeek donating 100 percent of the profits to the Canadian Cancer Society without acknowledging his own personal battle.

I had only recently lost my mother to liver cancer in May so I was able to impart a few words of wisdom and offer support. I told him to call my cell if he needed anything – big or small I was available. In typical Wuest form, my phone never rang. In November we exchanged our last Emails when he called his health situation ‘precarious’ and then communication went dark and a few months later he was gone.

Rest in peace my friend and thank you for inspiring me to be better and challenging me through the years. To his wife, Melanie, and family you have my sincere condolences and I want to thank you for giving me a wonderful friend and hockey partner. I will miss him – below are his last words to me. I will cherish them always.

“While I didn’t thank you in the public letter (or any other contributors, for that matter) I would like to say a special thanks to you as my No. 1 contributor through the years. You are a hard worker who shows remarkable dedication and it was a pleasure to be on your team. All the best in the future. Matt”