Categories: Need to know

The NHL’s anti-French “virus”

A new book claims the league systematically discriminates against Francophones

by macleans.ca on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 12:46pm - 5 Comments

Francophone hockey players from Quebec are victims of ingrained, longstanding racism at the hands of the NHL. Such is the thesis of Le Quebec mis en échec (Quebec Bodychecked), by former NHL player Bob Sirois. Poring over decades of statistics, Sirois concludes that there is an anti-French “virus” in the league. Among his findings: about 20 percent of Quebecers who were passed over in the draft managed to break into the league—a rate that is nearly double for the rest of the country. “In light of these figures, don’t even ask whether it’s true that Quebecers are underestimated by NHL scouts,” he writes.

National Post

Fred – Brandon MB

This is such a complete load of bull! NHL teams will sign the best players they can find, no matter where they are from! Just look at all of the Europeans in the league, many of whom arrive with little or no English language skills.
The sad fact is that there are just not enough French Canadian players good enough for the NHL. Just look at which junior leagues win the most Memorial Cups. The OHL has won the most, with the WHL winning the most recently. The QMJHL has only won a handful of times in the past 30 years. The days of the "flying Frenchman" has passed.
Quebec needs to look seriously at why its minor hockey system is failing to produce NHLers, instead of dreaming up some phoney conspiracy theory.
I grew up in Montreal, and the minor hockey system tiered the kids way too young, and focussed too much on winning, and not enough on skill development and equal ice time.

Just give me a break!

Brodi

poo in your face!

wayne moores

Just another desperate ploy by sepratists desperate to remain relivant in a world that has passed them by. Pitiful, really.
keith c

Fred, i'm inclined to agree with you given the junior league stats, but I do wonder about the author's stat about non-drafted Quebecers breaking into the league. Can that be a distortion or is it telling us something interesting? do NHL scouts under-cover Quebec in recent years, in favour of devoting resources to Europe?
Do more or fewer Quebecers break into the league by going to US universities and playing there?

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jenn_ Jenn_

Can't they be the same thing? If the juniors in Quebec are underperforming, does it make sense to send a lot of scouts there to look at them? I'd like to know when the QMJHL began to be seen as underperforming, and I'd also like to know when the bulk of the 20% of Quebec NHLers who were passed over in the draft occurred.

Sirois may have a valid point. I'd just like to be sure we've looked for other explanations of the data that don't include racism.