Hockey History Books

[Doctor No]

Looking forward to this - I’m a big fan of Marc’s (whose son is a current pro goaltender).

 

[seventieslord]

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This came out in October and it completely missed my radar. Had no idea. Written with Michael McKinley too, who's pretty great.

Haha, I just realized it was written BY Vairo, and not just about him. The title threw me off.

 

[Habsfan18]

Haha, I just realized it was written BY Vairo, and not just about him. The title threw me off.

It's been out for months and wasn't even in the SIHR DB. It's not too often a hockey book goes completely unnoticed for that long. I don't think anyone really knew about it. Jim Genac knows Lou pretty well and even he had no idea it was written and already published. Turns out Lou had a massive heart attack and underwent heart surgery pretty much right at the exact time the book came out. He's been recovering.

The book is arriving today and I'll send you some photos on messenger tonight.

 

[Habsfan18]

Not a "history" book, but one I'm very much looking forward to in October. I've always had such a fascination with scouting and the draft, and a deep dive into the life of scouts is right up my alley. Gare Joyce had written a good one about 20 years ago now (crazy that it's been that long..) as did Shane Malloy..but that was one I decided to pass on. Ken Reid is great though, and I think he'll do a great job with this.

 

[Habsfan18]

No cover yet, but Dale Arnold is working on "The Coaches" for Triumph Books and it's tentatively set for publication in November.

Publishers blurb:

The Coaches honors the experiences of NHL coaches throughout history. Author and longtime broadcaster Dale Arnold profiles leaders across eras, sharing their journeys, struggles, strategies, and moments of glory.

 

[Habsfan18]

I apologize to all that this thread has evolved into the crazy collector reporting on forthcoming hockey books, but hopefully at least some of you find it helpful.

Greystone Books has an authorized biography of Gino Odjick in the works, set to be published in October.

From veteran hockey reporter Patrick Johnston and NHL alumni Peter Leech comes the authorized biography of Gino Odjick.

In the 1980s and ’90s, National Hockey League games were very different from the nimble, skill-focused displays we see today. One of the greatest differences—and one of the sport’s more popular facets at the time—was the widespread presence of “enforcers”: hulking, battle-scarred players whose main task was to police the sport by chasing down and brawling with opponents who had broken unwritten codes determining which aspects of violence counted as dishonorable or unjustified.

When hard-hitting Vancouver Canucks player Gino Odjick emerged in the early 1990s, he quickly became one of the game’s most feared enforcers and revered teammates, a sign of a new era for the team, racking up 296 penalty minutes in the 45 games he played in his rookie season. Hailing from Kitigan Zibi, an Algonquin community near Maniwaki, Quebec, Gino was one of the few Indigenous players in the NHL at the time. But it was Gino’s ferocious play contrasted by his genuinely affable and openhearted personality off the ice that won him a special place in the hearts of Canucks supporters.

Yet legends often obscure the human stories behind them. Hockey journalist Patrick Johnston and Peter Leech look beyond Gino’s legendary persona, drawing on insights from family members, friends, and teammates to recount Gino’s early years in a loving household that was always ready to welcome foster children. Gino’s father, Joe, had suffered the lonely traumas of the residential school system, and the experience had instilled a commitment in the family to those who were less fortunate.

The book also details Gino’s eventual struggles with alcohol abuse, and how he responded by taking on the role of empathetic mentor to young Indigenous people, travelling from community to community to hear their stories and offer hope. He never wavered in this role, even as he confronted serious illnesses, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and the rare blood disorder that he survived for years longer than expected, but that eventually led to his death at age fifty-two.

Gino is a moving tribute to a beloved hockey legend.

 

[kaiser matias]

I apologize to all that this thread has evolved into the crazy collector reporting on forthcoming hockey books, but hopefully at least some of you find it helpful.

Greystone Books has an authorized biography of Gino Odjick in the works, set to be published in October.

The updates on new books is quite appreciated.

Though this description of the Odjick book is odd. Leech never played in the NHL, and the Amazon description of him says "His athletic accomplishments include a stint with the East Coast and Central Hockey Leagues." However I can't find him on Elite Prospects or HockeyDB, so I'm questioning things here.

 

[Habsfan18]

The updates on new books is quite appreciated.

Though this description of the Odjick book is odd. Leech never played in the NHL, and the Amazon description of him says "His athletic accomplishments include a stint with the East Coast and Central Hockey Leagues." However I can't find him on Elite Prospects or HockeyDB, so I'm questioning things here.

I found this. So he's at least acknowledged by the Canucks alumni. It's possible he got into some pre-season games in minor pro and that was the extent of it. But if so, it's odd to refer to a guy like that as "NHL alumni."

 

[Habsfan18]

For anyone keeping track, here are two more. These scheduled for publication in early 2026. So still a ways away, but worth keeping tabs on.

Black Aces - by Julian McKenzie:

An essential collection featuring hockey's most notable Black players in their own words

The game of hockey has long been considered a predominantly white sport in nearly every facet of its being. But if you look through the annals of the game, you will find Black players who have created longstanding hockey moments. We know — or think we know — these people as hockey players. But do we know how they got here as people? And what about the multitude of factors that have helped shape who they are?

Black Aces tells these stories, going deeper than what has previously been covered in traditional media. The Athletic's Julian McKensie talks to Hall of Famers, Olympic Gold medalists, World Champions, Stanley Cup playoff heroes, and auteurs of hockey history. Completing this modern portrait are the voices of up-and-coming players who look toward the future and defining moments of their own.

Includes conversations with Jarome Iginla, Sarah Nurse, Grant Fuhr, Anthony Stewart, Saroya Tinker, Georges Laraque, Joel Ward, and more.

The Moscow Playbook: How Russia Used, Abused, and Transformed Sports in the Hunt for Gold - by Bruce Berglund

An eye-opening account of how Russia’s leaders have used world sports as a tool to solidify their power, stoke national pride, and build prestige abroad

“Victories in sport do more to cement the nation than a hundred political slogans.” This was the pep talk Russian athletes heard in 2000 from their new president, Vladimir Putin. And so, for more than two decades, Putin has used sports like his Soviet predecessors to stoke nationalism at home, boost prestige abroad, and cement his position as leader.

The Moscow Playbook: How Russia Used, Abused, and Transformed Sports in the Hunt for Gold is the first book to fully examine the intersection of Russian sports and geopolitical power, from the dominant Soviet teams of past Olympics to recent doping scandals and international sanctions. With new research from Olympic archives, records of the Soviet bloc and current Russian media, historian Bruce Berglund shows how Moscow’s leaders have defied the rules of the game for decades as the world’s governing bodies turned a blind eye.

Featuring oligarchs, sportocrats, and famous athletes from Olga Korbut to Alex Ovechkin, this is a timely investigation into the gears of power, nationalism, and money that drive the Russian sports machine.

 

[Habsfan18]

Coming in September from Simon & Schuster..

Biographies on players still in their 20's is always odd to see, but this has been happening since the 70's. A player like this in a market like that? It's easy money. Almost guaranteed to be a best seller this Holiday seasom.

 

[Habsfan18]

Another one for October:

 

[Habsfan18]

Andrew Podnieks is set to publish "Hockey Nations" in October, which will examine Canada's best hockey cities, towns and villages. It's available for pre-order through Chapters/Indigo.

Also,

Some of you may be interested to know that Cornwall native and retired police officer Thom Racine is set to launch his book on Albertine Lapensée, who I'm sure many of you know played for the Cornwall Victorias from 1915 to 1918. If you're unfamiliar with her, she's regarded as Canada's first female hockey star and was believed to have scored over 150 goals while leading her club to 45 wins in 46 games over a two year period. She "disappeared" from hockey in 1918 at age 20, and many rumours have surfaced over the years claiming she either died in the flu pandemic, or even moved to New York to undergo a sex change. That one was actually mentioned in an official Cornwall history book. Thom's book aims to set the record straight once and for all.

If anyone is interested in buying a copy, shoot me a message and I'll give you Thom's contact info.

 

[Habsfan18]

Published posthumously is a book written by the late Cindy Cherry on her father, Don. It's available now and published by Tellwell Talent. A portion of the book sales will go to the Don Cherry Pet Rescue Foundation.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Don Cherry? Posthumously?

 

[Habsfan18]

Don Cherry? Posthumously?

Sorry, I meant his daughter Cindy. She passed in July of 2024.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Sorry, I meant his daughter Cindy. She passed in July of 2024.

Ah - thank you!

 

[SealsFan]

Finally finished the 500-page tome from former Seal George Pesut - The Fourth Period, Between the Ice Sheets. He had a long career in European leagues in Switzerland and Germany after his brief NHL/WHA career. Page after page of wild stories and pranks right out of Slapshot, especially in the European leagues where some aspects of the game and hockey culture are different from North America. And plenty of sex, drugs and drinking too. The book was self-published and definitely needed an editor. Many names of well-known players are spelled wrong and sometimes a name that is spelled correctly on one page is incorrect on the next. For example, his agent is Harvey Weinberg on one page and Henry Weinberg on the next page. The book ends abruptly when he finally has to retire at age 40 from numerous knee surgeries and we get no information on his life in the intervening 30 years.

 

[Habsfan18]

George is a really nice guy - I've spoken to him a few times about the book. I agree about it being an absolutely wild read. He's a great storyteller and I thoroughly enjoyed it. But yes, it suffers from a lack of professional editing..much like many of the self-published works. Bit of a shame, really.

But I will say that after speaking to many self-published authors and even a professional editor for a major publishing company, I totally understand why the typical author of a niche self-published book would forgo the professional editing. Unless you have a deal with a publisher, the costs involved in bringing an editor into your project is insane. I'm talking rates in the thousands. And for the typical hockey book author selling through amazon they won't even come close to breaking even in sales let alone turning an actual profit. Not unless they have deep pockets and are willing to take a major loss in order to make their passion project a reality.

So yeah, I guess what I'm saying is that I totally get the frustration when it comes to grammatical errors and factual inaccuracies. I HATE them too. But I guess I'm a bit more understanding after learning of the costs involved in at least hiring a legitimate professional editor. It's just not feasible.

 

[jigglysquishy]

Out of curiosity, do we have any sale figures? I'm assuming big books like The Game sell 100,000+. But are niche ones like Empire of Ice even hitting 1000?

 

[Habsfan18]

Out of curiosity, do we have any sale figures? I'm assuming big books like The Game sell 100,000+. But are niche ones like Empire of Ice even hitting 1000?

No sales figures that I'm aware of. Publishers Weekly will print a top-10 or 20 per genre but hockey just falls under the "non-fiction" category and none ever really sniff the list. There may be a Canadian "best sellers" list out there but I don't believe they publish the actual numbers. At least not to the best of my knowledge.

But I can tell you as someone who has had quite a few friends self-publish a hockey book or two, some are lucky to move even 100 total copies. So imagine spending thousands of dollars on an editor to sell 90 copies of your book. Ouch. Hockey history in particular is unfortunately very niche. Now I'm sure some of the hockey titles from major publishers sell decently enough but if I had to guess it would be measured more in hundreds rather than thousands. I guess the exception would be a big name autobiography that was marketed quite well or a mainstream release popular in a particular market - say the Brian Burke book for instance. Those will sell like hot cakes around the holidays. But I guess even then, hockey book "hot cakes" aren't the same as other book genres lol.

 

[jigglysquishy]

I self-published a (non hockey) history book a couple years ago. I sold about 100 copies. Always been curious where that sits to other niche history books.

 

[Habsfan18]

I self-published a (non hockey) history book a couple years ago. I sold about 100 copies. Always been curious where that sits to other niche history books.

I can't recall who told me this, it was likely one of Kevin Shea, Greg Oliver or Eric Zweig. But it was essentially "nobody, and I mean nobody, makes a living writing hockey books." And that's the sad truth to it. It really comes down to passion and love for the game, as cliche as it sounds.

 

[Habsfan18]

I posted this the other day to Todd Denault's hockey books group but figure I'll post it here too. It comes across as a bit of a blog type post and it wasn't my intention. I'm just highly passionate about hockey, its history and the books that tell the tales. As you were all aware already, I'm sure lol If it matters to anyone (haha), I give the two Vantour books my highest recommendation when it comes to lesser known hockey history books. Now these are niche. And ridiculously hard to find. But if you can scoop them up for a reasonable price don't even hesitate.

I've been spending some time recently after a bit of a break on my other full time "job" - tracking down out of print (and in this case limited edition/hard to find) hockey books that were a part of my "must have" list. There are truly only a handful of "must haves" remaining now, as if hockey books are ever actually a NEED...heh. The life of a collector..the thrill of the hunt, the major satisfaction after adding new volumes to your shelves, finally reading that book you've been wanting for a decade plus.

The two gems are the James Vantour books. The Fabulous Flyers tells the story of the old Western League's Edmonton Flyers, with a focus on the 1954-1955 championship team featuring the likes of Glenn Hall, Norm Ullman, Johnny Bucyk, Bronco Horvath, Larry Zeidel, Gerry Melnyk and Al Arbour..while The Super League tells the story of the short-lived Western Canada Junior Hockey League, in which a number of junior clubs from Alberta and Saskatchewan joined together with the intention of creating a new league with a higher calibre of play. It was in existence from 1948 to 1956. Jim is a fellow SIHR member and these two book projects are the result of an impressive amount of research over a number of years. They are fantastic additions to any hockey bookshelf.

Up next are two official limited-edition commemorative Stanley Cup books published by Skybox Press. Conquered the Hunt is a brand new photo book chronicling the 2024 Cup champs and their road to Lord Stanley. It's available exclusively at the Panthers team shop at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida but thankfully was available to ship to me in Canada. My guess is that I was among the very few here to order one. The other book is The Official Story of the 2012 Stanley Cup Champion Los Angeles Kings. It was one of the first hockey books published by Skybox and features original essays from key players, coaches and executives involved in the Cup run. It's a beautiful book.

And finally is a trio of hard to find books I've been wanting to acquire for awhile now. Penguins Jerseys: Then and Now is a visual tour showcasing all of the beautiful sweaters the club has donned since 1967 and was gifted exclusively to season-ticket holders and corporate partners in 2017 as part of the club's 50th anniversary celebrations. It was not made available to the general public. The Fire Inside chronicles the first 25 years of Calgary Flames hockey and is a book I've know about for years but didn't realize just how few copies were out there. Mine is signed by Dion Phaneuf. And lastly we have The Glory of our Game 2 by Richard Buell, which covers the history of hockey in the Golden Porcupine (Timmins and area) and features Bill Barilko and his iconic OT winner that clinched the 1951 Stanley Cup on the cover. An impressive list of players from the Golden Porcupine include the likes of Frank and Pete Mahovlich, Dean Prentice, Bob Nevin, Walt Tkachuk, Don Lever, Allan Stanley, Bill Barilko, Steve Sullivan, Dave Poulin, Eric Vail, Pat Hannigan, Shean Donovan, and goaltender Ivan McLelland, who backstopped Canada (Penticton Vees) to a goal medal at the 1955 World Hockey Championships. Richard had previously published the first book in the duo a few years earlier which covered the history of the game in the Kirkland Lake area. It was excellent, so I had to get this one too.

Some other (easier to find) books that I've also recently added include...The Seventh Man (a history of the Kamloops Blazers), Hockey Night in Dixie (the rise of minor pro in the American South), The Miracle Maid (Albertine Lapensée biography), NHL Hockey By The Numbers (a look at the best players to wear each sweater number over the past 50 years), a book on the 2010-2011 Vancouver Canucks team that came within one win of the Stanley Cup, and a history of the WHL's Lethbridge Broncos franchise that features an alumni list with the likes of Bryan Trottier, the Sutter brothers (Brent, Brian, Ron, Duane, Rich, Darryl), Ken Wregget, Troy Murray, Dave Barr, Mark Tinordi, Troy Loney, Steve Tambellini, Bob Rouse, Gerald Diduck, and Lindy Ruff.

 

[Habsfan18]

Just announced at today's SIHR meeting, is Donald Murray's book on Howie Morenz that will be published by Sutherland House Books this coming November.