Ken Dryden was a Canadian author, lawyer, public official, and former professional hockey goaltender. He played for the Montreal Canadiens during the 1970s, winning six Stanley Cups, and represented Canada in the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.
After his playing career, Dryden worked in hockey administration and public service. He served as president of the Toronto Maple Leafs and was elected to Canada’s House of Commons in 2004, later holding a cabinet position. His writing covered hockey, education, Canadian society, and the lives of people outside professional sport. He died in September 2025.
His sports books range from a player’s account of team life to investigations of head injuries and a biography of coach Scotty Bowman. With journalist Roy MacGregor, he wrote Home Game, extending the subject from elite hockey to its place in Canadian communities.
Ken Dryden Books
| Book | Year | Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Face-off at the Summit | 1973 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| The Game | 1983 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Home Game | 1989 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| The Moved and the Shaken | 1993 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| In School | 1995 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Becoming Canada | 2010 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Game Change | 2017 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| Scotty | 2019 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| The Series | 2022 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
| The Class | 2023 | Description / Buy at Amazon |
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Hockey Books
The Game: A Thoughtful and Provocative Look at a Life in Hockey: Dryden describes life with the Montreal Canadiens during his final season as a professional goaltender. Teammates, coach Scotty Bowman, travel, preparation, and the pressures of performance form the central subjects. The memoir examines the work behind a championship team and the experience of occupying a specialized position, while considering how hockey fits into the life of a player preparing to leave it.
Face-off at the Summit: Dryden gives an account of the 1972 Summit Series between Canadian professionals and the Soviet national team. The games provide a framework for describing preparation, competition, and the encounter between two hockey systems. Written from a participant’s perspective relatively close to the event, the book records the circumstances and reactions surrounding a series whose meaning extended beyond the results on the ice.
Home Game: Hockey and Life in Canada: Written with Roy MacGregor and associated with a CBC television series, this illustrated book explores hockey across Canada. Its subjects range from informal games to professional competition and international meetings with Soviet teams. Personal accounts, photographs, and reporting examine the game’s place in families and communities, connecting the sport’s highest levels with the everyday experiences through which Canadians learn, play, and discuss it.
Game Change: The Life and Death of Steve Montador and the Future of Hockey: Dryden investigates the life of NHL player Steve Montador, who was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy after his death. The account connects his experiences with hockey’s development, changing speed and physical demands, and scientific knowledge about head injuries. Dryden examines decisions within the sport and proposes changes intended to reduce harm, placing an individual player’s history within a broader argument about hockey’s future.
Scotty: A Hockey Life Like No Other: Dryden and Scotty Bowman revisit the coach’s long career and his experience of successive generations of hockey. The account includes players Bowman watched, coached, and competed against, connecting personal recollections with changes in professional play. Their discussions consider teams and eras through the perspective of a coach whose championship career extended across decades, making the book both a biography and an examination of hockey’s development.
The Series: What I Remember, What It Felt Like, What It Feels Like Now: Published for the Summit Series’ fiftieth anniversary, this account returns to the eight games between Canada and the Soviet Union in 1972. Dryden reconstructs the uncertainty and reactions of a participant while considering what the event meant after five decades. The narrative follows the series from Montreal to its deciding game in Moscow, examining consequences for hockey and for the public understanding of the two countries.
Other Writing
Dryden’s books beyond hockey include The Moved and the Shaken, about Canadian lives and social change, and In School, based on time spent observing a secondary school. The Class returns to former classmates and their later lives. These works concern education and society rather than the playing and administration of hockey.