Top 15 of Francophone Quebec podcasts on hockey

The media landscape is undergoing a revolution. Traditional journalists who only reported on news – either by investigating or simply relaying it – are becoming less common.

Teams, athletes, leagues, and organizations are publishing a tremendous amount of content on their own, and the journalist has often become just an intermediate communication channel between them and the fans. Yes, journalism has been struggling for a few years… but sports journalism is struggling even more than political or current events journalism. We all agree on this.

The solution is to ask the government to subsidize journalism… but can we really demand that the government use our taxes to fund someone who takes a plane to summarize a televised game or to tell us who is training with whom on the morning of a game (when the club itself publishes this information)?

This is why we see more and more opinion in the media. We don’t release much news anymore; we comment on it, analyze it, and dissect it.

Result: there are now French-language hockey podcasts for all tastes in Quebec.

We conducted a survey of podcasts that deal with hockey and ranked them according to their success, both on YouTube and on online podcast platforms, as well as on various social media platforms (notably through their excerpts, discussions they generate, and articles they influence).

1. Processus
Processus is the most popular podcast on the Quebec web. Only Spittin’ Chiclets and 32 Thoughts are more listened to than Processus in Canada on Spotify.

Mathias Brunet and Simon « Snake » Boisvert have found a niche: analyzing prospects and commenting on the Canadiens’ rebuilding. During a rebuilding period, it’s a hit. Let’s see if it will be just as popular once this rebuilding phase is over…

2. Stanley25
Stanley25 reaches around 25,000 people per week, across all platforms. It is, week after week, the third most listened to Quebec hockey podcast on Spotify.

Jean Trudel and Maxime Truman have just completed their third season of 10 episodes. Sometimes alone, sometimes with a guest, their podcast remains one of the most watched in the Quebec sports world.

Stanley25 aims to be a mix of anecdotes, info, analysis, and rumors told by two pillars of the Quebec sports web. Note that the podcast is produced by 9millions (Serge Fortin).

3. La poche bleue
LPB was long the most popular podcast in Quebec, but it’s not anymore.

During the pandemic, when there was no original sports content, Maxim Lapierre and Guillaume Latendresse quickly rose to the top. Then, they sold their brand to an Ontario company, which was then sold to a European company. The guys cashed in a few million dollars at the right time.

The market adapted, and 1001 podcasts were launched, diminishing the impact of La Poche Bleue in the market.

The guys also raised lowered their arms a bit, after they escaped on the set of Sous écoute (Mike Ward). The flavor of the podcast changed, and Guillaume Latendresse withdrew to take care of his mental health. In short, LPB is still rolling, but it’s not like before.

4. On jase
Is On jase still a podcast? According to the definition, yes.

Martin Lemay and Yanick Lévesque attract a few thousand people daily at noon. The podcast is broadcast on RDS’s YouTube channel, on various audio streaming platforms… but also on RDS’s main channel.

Martin Lemay has managed to create something different from what he does on the airwaves in the late afternoon. Hats off!

5. Entre la poire et le fromage
Louis Morissette and Jean-Philippe Wauthier decided to launch a sports podcast, but the project wasn’t taking off.

That’s when they had the brilliant idea to invite hockey world participants, which created an interesting mix of sports and cultural universes.

It will be interesting to see if Wauthier’s break (professional exhaustion) will slow down the pace and success of the podcast.

6. Radar
Radar is a young podcast broadcast on Commission athlétique, the digital little brother of BPM Sports.

Hosted by Pierre LeBrun and Anthony Desaulniers, this podcast aims to be a mix of insides and analysis from a veteran of the game and a young prodigy who is quietly making a name for himself on BPM’s FM waves.

Between 2,000 and 7,000 people watch each episode of Radar on YouTube. It will be interesting to see if the podcast will continue to rise in the coming months or if it will remain a specialized podcast for true fanatics only.

7. Tellement hockey
Produced by Radio-Canada’s large machine and hosted by Martin Leclerc, Alexandre Coupal, Alexandre Gascon, and Marc-Antoine Godin, Tellement hockey reaches 7,000 to 8,000 people per episode on YouTube, but it’s not found on audio platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcast. You have to go to Radio-Canada’s site or app to find it.

Tellement hockey aims to be a traditional podcast above all, produced with a significant budget and pushed by Radio-Canada’s large machine.

Many find it to their liking and only swear by this podcast. Others see it as a too standardized product.

8. La Poche Bleue Blanc Rouge
For a third season, former Canadiens players host a digital post-game show of the Habs as soon as the final siren sounds.

Éric Bélanger, André Roy, and Steve Bégin average 3,000 people after each Habs game. Good job!

9. Hockey30
David Garel may be the most polarizing public figure among all the podcast hosts mentioned in this article, but he still hosts one of the most popular sports podcasts in Quebec in terms of YouTube views.

Between 3,000 and 14,000 people watch each of his episodes (in which he always receives a different guest) on YouTube.

However, the fact that the podcast is not available on online listening platforms, that some guests have no connection to hockey, and that sometimes several weeks pass between episodes, all worked against the podcast in our ranking.

10. Poolcast
Poolcast is a new podcast that combines hockey pools and sports discussions with a guest from the sports world.

Hosted by Pascal Cameron and Marco Normandin (HabsolumentFan), the podcast has the wind in its sails.

It remains to be seen how far this wind will take the young podcast…

11. Sortie de zone
Sortie de zone is a podcast produced jointly by La Presse and Cogeco Média. Jérémie Rainville, Stéphane Waite, Guillaume Lefrançois, Antoine Roussel, Simon-Olivier Lorange and/or Richard Labbé discuss weekly topics in the NHL.

Very popular on Spotify, Sortie de zone is however absent from YouTube and some other popular listening platforms. It is also broadcast on La Presse and some Cogeco media outlets.

12. La relève
Anthony Desaulniers and Martin Thériault have been hosting the La Relève podcast for some time now, a podcast that focuses on young players and NHL prospects.

Nota bene to Processus listeners: La Relève is worth checking out.

13. Femme d’Hockey
Isabelle Éthier has been working for years to promote women’s sports, but not just that. Through several episodes, she receives athletes or male hosts to discuss sports with them in a conversation that is unlike any of the previously mentioned podcasts.

Isabelle is often on the field, she is a co-owner of the Montreal Roses team, and she represents a less conventional way of doing/talking about/promoting sports.

14. Drette su’l tape
David Beaucage has already produced over 200 episodes. He was one of the first to host a sports podcast in French in Quebec.

He often records in front of an audience, but his most recent episodes are less popular than his first ones.

He remains relevant, and many of his guests have good stories to tell.

15. TSLH Podcast
Mathieu Paradis and Pascal Laplante have been talking about prospects and the Canadiens for years on the ToutSurLeHockey site. Their podcast, launched a few years ago, aims to be a quality complement to what they already do in writing on the site.

If you like Processus and/or La Relève, give the TSLH Podcast guys a chance.

Special mention: Les Sport’ischhh
Frank Grenier and Martin Vachon, two professional comedians, have already produced over 70 episodes (in studio) of their humorous and human podcast.

Each week, they receive a guest in front of an audience and discuss with him/her what sports represent in their life.

The product is unique and targets people who like sports, but not necessarily the Habs. That’s why we didn’t include it in our top 15 of French-Quebec sports podcasts about hockey.

Overtime

Some other podcasts didn’t make our top 15 for various reasons.

RDS, BPM Sports, and Cogeco now broadcast several of their shows in podcast form (Spotify, Apple Podcast, etc.). Since these products are not podcasts, but rather full-fledged shows, we decided to ignore them.

Bon match, a podcast hosted by Martin McGuire and Dany Dubé, is hard to find on traditional podcasting platforms. Also, some episodes are exclusive and last an hour, while others are just a few minutes long, excerpts from a chronicle they did on the air.

And their listening numbers are not enormous. We also decided to ignore it.

Smaller podcasts like La tasse de café LNH (hosted by Nicolas Ducharme, Jean-François Chaumont, and Guillaume Lepage, three NHL employees), À la coupe, Les Glorieux, and La Puck offer content on a regular basis. They would have made the cut if we had done a top 20.

We’ll keep an eye on the new French-language version of Tony Marinaro’s Sick Podcast, broadcast every Friday afternoon… and we salute the Le Vestiaire segment, broadcast weekly on Radio Pirate. They are two very good hockey segments that simply didn’t meet our evaluation criteria.