Pretty simple, since we may or may not have a season, I’m looking to read some books on the NHL or organized hockey from the beginnings up until around the start of the Gretzky era.
Here are a few topics I’m interested in, but no need to limit your suggestions:
Pretty sure The Game and Home Game by Ken Dryden would be up your alley. It’s been awhile since read them but I don’t think Gretzky figures in them. Home Game might, though.
“The Rebel League” by Ed Willis on the WHA is pretty good.
There was a biography of goaltender Jacques Plante and how he changed hockey by Todd Denault. Plante himself wrote a book on goaltending that I have never read but a lot of people swear is good on the technical side.
Love him or hate him but Don Cherry has a lot of interesting stories from his minor league playing career (except for one game in the NHL), minor league and NHL coach. The one he did with Stan Fischler “Grapes” is the most chronological
I just checked out a book from the library called Hockey Hall of Fame Legends. As it was written in 1993, Gretzky’s only mentioned in passing. You’ve profiles on people like Howie Morenz, Clint Benedict (the first goalie ever to use a mask), George Vezina. And of course, Gordie Howe and Maurice Richard.
The Game is considered to be the best book ever written about the sport. The updated version DOES mention Gretzky in the last chapters, but you can probably find an older copy without it, or skip that part. Either way, every hockey fan should read this book.