Canucks: Five books about the team that you should read

We are still in the offseason for the Vancouver Canucks and Elias Pettersson and Quinn Hughes still remain unsigned.

Training camp is over a week away and there hasn’t been any news the last few days about their contract statuses but hopefully we get some good news over the coming week.

To pass the time before the season begins, there are a lot of hockey themed activities you can do.  Reading blogs like The Canuck Way, surfing Canucks Twitter or Reddit or playing as the Canucks in EA Sports NHL video games come to mind.

One thing you can also do is read a book. Nothing beats a good old fashioned book. Reading a book is a nice way to pass the time and a nice break from your computer, tablet or smartphone. (Unless you read books on one of those devices or an E-Reader.)

I am going to suggest five Canucks themed books you can read to satisfy your Canucks cravings before the season starts. You can get these books at your nearest bookstore or your favourite online retailer.

#1: 100 Things Canucks Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die

100 Things Canucks Fans Should Know and do Before They Die is one every Canucks fan should read. This book was published in 2017 . It was written by Thomas Drance (now senior hockey writer for The Athletic.) and Mike Halford (host of Halford and Brough in the morning on Sportsnet 650.) There is also a foreword by former goaltender and current Canucks Sportsnet colour commentator John Garrett.

100 Things contains stories about the Canucks over the years. You might know some of them and you might not know some of them. There are stories of the Canucks expansion process, how Tom Scallan apparently stole three million dollars from the franchise, how the West Coast Express line came to be and many more.

Both Drance and Halford walk you through pieces of Canucks knowledge and trivia and provide some things a Canucks fan can do.

#2: 50 Years of Vancouver Canucks Hockey

The Canucks celebrated 50 years as an NHL franchise during the 2019-20 season and this book takes you through the good times and the bad times.

This was written by Joe Pelletier, a hockey historian based out of Terrace B.C. and writer for Greatesthockeylegends,com.

Pelletier of course, is a life long Canucks fan and he goes tells stories of the team’s 50 years and adds his own personal insight and memories to it.  Pelletier knows being a Canucks fan is a painful experience and he writes about it in the book. He also picks the 50 greatest players in franchise history.

This is a great book that tells the story of the team’s first five decades from a fan for fans.

#3: Ice Storm: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Vancouver Canucks Team Ever

Journalist and broadcaster Bruce Dowbiggin writes about Vancouver’s meteoric rise to becoming one of the best teams in the NHL and their rapid collapse following the Game 7 loss in the 2011 Stanley Cup Final.

There is one central figure in this book and that’s Mike Gillis. The book explores GIllis’s hiring in 2008, how he built the team into a contender and his final years as general manager and President of Hockey Operations. The book also explores Gillis’ methods including sleep science and modernizing the players diets.

Ice Storm gives a behind the scenes look at the most successful era in Canucks history and tells how it began and how it came crashing down.

#4 Pavel Bure: The Riddle of the Russian Rocket

Kerry Banks has written has written a bunch of books about hockey including one about the Russian Rocket.

Pavel Bure is the most exciting hockey player in Canucks history. His speed and skill wowed fans in 90s and is a player that wouldn’t look out of place in today’s NHL.

Pavel Bure: The Riddle of the Russian Rocket dives into Bure’s life, his poor relationship with his father, what brought him to Vancouver, his feud with management and more.

You won’t want to put this book down because it is almost as exciting as Bure on the ice.

#5 Quinn: The Life of a Hockey Legend

Quinn: The Life of a Hockey Legend is the biography of the late Pat Quinn.

Quinn of course, was a former Canucks defencemen and he was the coach and general manager of the team in the 90s and helped guide them to the Stanley Cup Final in 1994.

Dan Robson dives deep into Quinn’s beginnings, his playing days, his time at law school and his career as a coach and an executive and more. Robson also does a great job into telling the story of Pat Quinn as a person and his relationships with his colleagues, friends and family.

This book is a great account of one of the key figures in Vancouver hockey history.