The Code of the West

A straight-shooting memoir of a hockey legend who both played the game and redefined it as a coach, this is the story of Darryl Sutter, the farm boy who fought his way to the top.

Only six coaches in NHL history have records that match Sutter’s, and four of them are in the Hall of Fame. He captained the Chicago Blackhawks as a player, before being forced into early retirement by injuries. He has coached the Calgary Flames, San Jose Sharks, Chicago Blackhawks, and won two Stanley Cups as coach of the LA Kings.

But he is better known and even more loved for his reputation—as an advocate of aggressive, hard-nosed hockey, as a no-nonsense farmer who was never softened by the bright lights of fame (he famously keeps his Stanley Cup rings in a cookie tin on top of the fridge), as one of six brothers who made it to the NHL, and as perhaps the most entertainingly no-nonsense interviewee in the history of the game, capable of dissolving a scrum of reporters into laughter with a deadpan one-liner.

An old-school legend, beloved by players and fans, Sutter’s code is a set of rules he not only lived by, but framed and hung in his team’s dressing rooms. More than a memoir or a catalogue of great hockey stories, The Code of the West lays out what it takes to win, on and off the ice.