The Road To Hockeytown: Jimmy Devellano's 40 Years In Hockey

When you think of the great managers and administrators of the past 40 years, you think of names like Scotty Bowman, Glen Sather, Bill Torrey, Lou Lamoreillo and Harry Sinden.

But not everyone immediately thinks of Jimmy Devellano. But you should.

Devellano is currently the senior vice president of the Detroit Red Wings, an organization he joined 27 years ago. In that time he was quietly instrumental in turning the "Dead Wings" into the top team in hockey for the better part of the past decade and a half, winning Stanley Cups in 1997, 1998, 2002 and 2008.

Before that he was the assistant general manager and director of scouting with the New York Islanders during their dynasty years, winning Stanley Cups in 1980, 1981, and 1982.

He's been a part of 7 Stanley Cup championships, and 14 professional sports championships. Needless to say, being a major piece of two dynasty Stanley Cup teams means Jimmy D has plenty of stories to tell. He does just that in his autobiography The Road to Hockeytown: Jimmy Devellano's Forty Years in the NHL, published by Wiley.

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The best part of his memoirs of course is commentary on his decisions in the past. The very first thing I did was crack open the index and searched for certain events. I wanted to read Devellano's insider opinions on the likes Steve Yzerman, Scotty Bowman, Sergei Fedorov, Bob Probert, Bryan Trottier, Mike Bossy and Denis Potvin. Often the talk of the lesser-likes like Ray Staszak and Jean Potvin are every bit as interesting.

With one of the lengthiest careers in hockey history to talk about, I guess it is not surprising that he often glosses over building blocks of the past with little or no mention. After all, it's tough to cover 40 years less than 300 pages.

Devellano tells his story through busy broadcaster Roger Lajoie. Though this is Lajoie's first book, he does a great job writing in Jimmy D's voice. But ultimately the book is rather pedestrian, through no real fault of either Devellano or Lajoie. This is a typical plague of most sports autobiographies.

That's why I prefer biographies or authorized biographies. At least that way the text is often a little more hard hitting or tell-it-as-it-is. At times these humdrum autobiographies come across as too much self tooting. That is not necessarily what is intended, just a possible interpretation.

Unless you have an interest in the1980s Islanders or the 1990s to present Red Wings, you might have to be a pretty hardcore hockey fan to find this book of much interest. Why else would anyone pick up this book with the old guy with the comb-over?

But there are some interesting stories told here by Devellano.

I'm not sure what I found more fascinating - Devellano's insatiable appetite for hockey, or his luck in landing a NHL job. Even when he was working as a civil servant in Ottawa and dreaming of being the next Punch Imlach, hockey was a 24/7, 365 day addiction for this guy. He's equally determined to start working in the league, and accomplishes just that by writing a letter to the St. Louis Blues. He started out as a volunteer scout, but soon enough he was a 5 year employee of the Blues with a reputation for his eye for talent. Even when he gets released from the Blues he gets back into the league basically while walking down a Montreal street.

It's a real important lesson of the book. You work hard, and you meet the right people, and you will go far in whatever your undertaking is. You have to put yourself out there, stay determined, and not be afraid to make your own luck.

The book ends with an interesting and valuable chapter called "From Where I Stand." Here Devellano gives his opinion on everything from the current state of the NHL to expansion to marketing the game to shootouts to player agents to what it takes to be a successful manager in the NHL. Jimmy Devellano has lived and breathed the NHL for the past 40 years. He has some solid and simple words of wisdom that should be mandatory reading for a lot of NHL managers and administrators. Hockey is a better game and business because of Jimmy Devellano's contributions.

I would not recommend The Road to Hockeytown for everyone, but it is an interesting read for Islanders and Red Wings fans, and for those who are looking for an inside look in the National Hockey League world of scouting and managing.

2008 Hockey Book Preview: The Road To Hockeytown

The book: The Road to Hockeytown*, hardcover, 320 pages
The Author: Roger Lajoie, Jimmy Devellano
The Publisher: Wiley
Release Date: August 18, 2008
Pre-order: Amazon - Chapters

* The book is listed as The Road to Hockeytown: Jimmy Devellano's Forty Years in the NHL, but the publisher's own description hints that the final title will be From Cabbage Town To Hockeytown. We'll have to wait a bit longer on the final title, apparently.

Book Description
The architect of 13 championship teams, six of them Stanley Cup winners, Jimmy D. has left his indelible mark on the game of hockey everywhere he has gone, from Cabbagetown to Hockeytown USA. Born in the working-class Cabbagetown neighbourhood of 1940s Toronto, Devellano has risen to become one of the most respected and accomplished executives in hockey and in sports in general.

He never did play hockey, but has always had an excellent eye for talent. As a scout and assistant general manager with the New York Islanders, he helped build the team that won four Stanley Cups in the 1980s, three of which he was with the franchise for. He was the first person Mike and Marian Ilitch hired when they bought the ailing Detroit Red Wings in 1982 and Jimmy D. carefully choreographed the steady rise of the Wings from one of the NHL’s weakest teams into the powerful club that has reached the Stanley Cup finals four of the last ten years and lifted the coveted Cup in triumph three times. Now in his 25^th season with Detroit and his 40^th in the NHL, Jim Devellano continues to be a driving force behind Detroit’s success as well as a strong influence in the evolution and improvement of the game and the league itself.

From Cabbagetown to Hockeytown gives a rare glimpse inside the world of hockey from an unusual perspective—through the eyes of one of the game’s greatest executives. This is the candid, personal account of Jim Devellano’s life and his 40 incredible years in the game of hockey. He gives us an insider’s insight into the business and personalities of the game, sharing his stories of many of the characters he has encountered over the years—how he convinced the New York Islanders to hire Al Arbour as their coach, and then did the same thing in bringing Scotty Bowman to Detroit; how he was one of the first to assemble a strong European scouting staff; and how he wheeled and dealed to bring a crop of talented Russians like Sergei Fedorov, Slava Kozlov, and Vladimir Konstantinov from behind the Iron Curtain to the NHL. As a general manager or head of hockey operations, Devellano offers a behind-the-scenes look at what the players and coaches are really like; how they are assessed, hired, and fired; how decisions are made on draft day; and how deals and trades really get done. As told to veteran journalist and broadcaster Roger Lajoie, From Cabbagetown to Hockeytown is a captivating memoir of a truly unique life in hockey.

Joe's Note: You'd never know it by looking at him, but Jimmy Devellano is one of hockey's brightest minds. Hopefully this book can escape the typical dryness that plagues these type of autobiographies. No picture yet folks, when I find one I'll let you know!