The Franchise: The Business of Building Winning Teams

by Craig Custance

The most comprehensive look at championship hockey Why some teams always win, why some teams perennially lose, why some surefire stars never become superstars, and what execs see in unheralded players who grow into fan favorites.Team builders make the biggest decisions in hockey, and indeed in all of sports. They set the culture. They are the ones ultimately responsible for whether a Stanley Cup is raised at the end of the season. In the NHL, it all starts at the top. In this book, journalist Craig Custance takes readers behind the scenes of championship hockey culture where the most impactful (and most secretive) leaders in the NHL operate. For over three years, he has journeyed everywhere to get exclusive time with the most powerful people in an owner’s suite, a private championship ring ceremony, a Pennsylvania country club, a Florida pickleball court, and a bookstore in a northern Michigan resort town, among other locations. In total, the owners, presidents, general managers, and executives featured in this book have won twelve Stanley Cups, an Olympic gold medal and, in one case, led a boycott that changed the sport forever. For hockey fans, there are stories behind memorable trades, the biggest free agent signings and insights into how some of the most successful teams of the last two decades were built. There are never-been-told details about trade demands, a prominent hire that was regretted immediately, and the story of how one general manager risked his life to sign a player he thought could alter his franchise. For those interested in the secrets of sports management, this book details the hiring process, the path to the highest levels of success in hockey, the values in risk-taking, and the character traits most consistent in eventual champions.

Genres: Sports, Hockey, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

Published October 15, 2024

About the author

Craig Custance is the author of The Franchise: The Business of Building Winning Teams (2024) and also Behind the Bench: Inside the Minds of Hockey's Greatest Coaches (2017). He is currently the Head of Creative Development at The Athletic, a New York Times company, and was the host of the popular interview podcast The Full 60. He joined The Athletic after nearly a decade covering the NHL as a national hockey writer, the last six as a senior writer for ESPN.com. Before covering the NHL, he was an award-winning journalist with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Reviews

[Joey Forbidussi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty solid read, definitely a few chapters that read like PR or puff pieces. However, the Jim Nill chapter is what makes this a 4-star book. Such a great insight into his character

[Dave Hambleton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the concept AND the format of FRANCHISE: THE BUSINESS OF BUILDING WINNING TEAMS by Craig Custance. I also loved the behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to win at the highest level of professional hockey. In fact, I loved everything about this book, except how it was written. There was just something that didn’t flow for me. I wish I could explain that more, but I can’t. And I guess that’s why I’m not a professional book reviewer.

[Emma Strawbridge · Rating 2 out of 5]

there are a lot of things that make hockey and the nhl a particularly unique league. the one that i know most about is analytics and data, which isn’t mentioned much here, mostly because hockey analytics is much newer than baseball. but this is a recent publish so it’s a little surprising to mention contemporary GMs and very little interaction with data when looking at it generally from a “sports GM” perspective but again, this is hockey. hockey has not moneyballed yet. another thing that makes hockey different is that it is a team sport. you cannot get by on one star player like a pitcher or a striker or a quarterback, and franchises like cr*sby’s penguins being so successful many times over are generally pretty rare. so in that sense, learning about how GMs in the nhl build entire teams instead of just picking up special players is pretty interesting. and yay for unionizing meghan duggan. all in all this is too self-help-leadership-businessman-like for me to enjoy and reads like character studies as opposed to evaluations of how franchises were built, partially but not entirely because i felt like the chapters were a little short. reaffirms my belief that the hockey world is cool to imagine being a part of but there are too many men involved. except you, chicago blackhawks. you guys are cool despite the shitshow. i did not get to know kyle dubas very well but i think he’d be a great story and i hope that the team gets that, sooner rather than later haha. also, “he’s a guy who brings books with him during his vacations to Martha’s Vineyard”… george mcphee am i supposed to be IMPRESSED? be serious. this is bare minimum. mark if you’re reading this i hope i don’t sound like an idiot.

[Simon MacDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quasi follow up to Behind the Bench. This time Craig Custance gets into the heads of NHL executives. Each chapter is a dive into what it takes to build a winner with a NHL GM or owner. While the book lends itself to reading one chapter at a time I did like how the author was able to string together a narrative that leads you from one exec to the next.

Also, Craig if you are reading this review. You can credit The Athletic Hockey Show podcast you did with Sean Gentille with the sale. I knew you were working on another book but didn't know it was out until I listened to that pod. Bought the book the same day. So you are 1/11th of the way to the podcast bump you two talked about.

[brandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given an advance copy of this book by Simon and Schuster. I am fairly new to hockey my husband has been a fan forever and I’m learning, I started watching the leafs so I loved that Kyle Dubas had a chapter in the book. I love the hockey draft and what is happening behind the scenes for a winning franchise. I really enjoyed this book and recommend this read for hockey fans.

[Sam Proietto · Rating 3 out of 5]

(6/10) The Franchise is pitched at a couple of levels simultaneously. Most readers will probably come into it wanting to know more about the NHL, and it functions on that level, just; the book added texture to my understanding of a series of prominent managers in the league. Some of the stories are interesting insights into trades and such, but many more are really nothing much, for example 'Mike Sullivan and Jim Rutherford got dinner after one of their Cups, I don't remember which', or 'every GM in the league will occasionally send a caring text or something to a random organizational staff member.'

There is also an undertone that this book wants to 'reveal what the best managers do to succeed'. I'm not sure if the book ever explicitly promised that it would deliver insights that were generalisable in the business world, but given the amount of fawning corporate-speak and corporate ideology in the book, it's certainly pitched at people who would want to know that sort of thing. Given the lack of any thematic connection from one chapter to the next, I would say this book stands for the opposite of any generalised lesson. Approaches to management are totally interchangeable, and most people succeed sometimes but not other times, for myriad reasons that are only really taken as isolated cases and never compared with each other.

The Franchise is a series of profiles, but there's little deeper substance to it than that; Custance dares not show any deeper opinion on why GMs like Dubas or Lamoriello have failed so regularly, or even a softer analysis like why McPhee succeeded in Vegas after failing in Washington. It would have been a much more interesting read if there was any sense of an overarching point to it, but instead it just felt like a 250-page extended access piece in the Athletic (funnily enough).

[Books and Wellness · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Franchise: The Business of Building Winning Teams, Craig Custance offers an illuminating look into the behind-the-scenes world of hockey management. Over three years, he interviewed key figures from general managers to players, unpacking the intricate processes that lead to championship success.

Custance expertly illustrates how decisions made off the ice can significantly impact a franchise's performance. Personal anecdotes from executives like Brad Treliving and Meghan Duggan provide engaging insights, while stories of missteps and high-stakes decisions add depth to the narrative.

For fans accustomed to focusing on players, this book shifts the perspective to the strategic visionaries who craft winning teams. Custance's storytelling is both fluid and accessible, making complex ideas engaging.

Overall, this book is essential reading for any hockey fan. It deepens the understanding of the sport, revealing that victory is as much about the people behind the scenes as it is about the players on the ice.

I would like to thank Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy of this book through their influencer program. I would also like to personally thank Craig for including women's hockey in his book. This meant a lot to me.

[Stephen Strumos · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main issue I always find with sports books, is that you never truly get the full story. While it's fascinating to get a deep dive in how some hockey GMs create winning teams, I can't help but feel that so much information is left unsaid.

I imagine in order to maintain enough status to speak with higher ups in the NHL, you have to maintain relationships and avoid too harsh a criticism of whom you're aiming to speak with and write about. This appeared to be the case in many scenarios, focusing on the positive aspects of each GM without focusing on a more nuanced, and balanced look.

Surprisingly, a few of the GMs interviewed hadn't won anything in the NHL like Kyle Dubas and Brad Treliving. Nonetheless, it is still an interesting book for a hockey fan but I feel like I only got part of the story in many cases.

[Mike Heenan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!

The Franchise focuses on a variety of executives across the NHL discussing their methodology for building a successful franchise. Each chapter was different and captured the uniqueness of each person interviewed. You could tell that the author has a good relationship with each person he interviewed as there was more openness and honesty than I expected.

I personally enjoyed the range of people that were interviewed and the details that were provided for each person's career. I would strongly recommend this book to all hockey fans and anyone interested in how teams are built in sport.

[Andrew Langert · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a little different from what I expected. I was expecting the author to tie together a lot of different components to provide a clear guide on how to build a winning sports team. In actuality, this is a series of 10 profiles/interviews with an about 10 highly successful hockey executives. There is no magic formula in this book, just an explanation of what each person did and how he or she did it.

Some of the interviews were more interesting than others. The most interesting chapter to me by far was the story on Jim Nill, general manager of the Dallas Stars. Reading about him makes me want to root for him.

This was a quick read and dealt with a quite intriguing subject matter. I’d like to see a book about how and why general managers fail! How not to do things!

[madison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m usually not one to read a nonfiction book like this but I was interested. I am a hockey fan so I decided I would read it. It was pretty interesting to be more behind the scenes and learn/go beyond the players and the game itself and into the game management.

It took me awhile to get through it because I usually dont read these types of books but it was still entertaining and enjoyable. Definitely a book I would recommend for any hockey fans who like reading especially these types of books.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the arc copy in exchange for a free review!!

⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

[John Matisz · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Franchise" reeled me in from the first page and I finished the last in my third sitting. Craig did a fantastic job identifying the most intriguing parts of each subject's life/career and then taking the reader behind the scenes. Could tell he put a ton of thought into every word and sentence. Favourite chapters were on Julien BriseBois, the Washington Capitals, and Tom Dundon. Highly recommend.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sports are often broken down very coldly into results and analytics. Mr Custance provides some insight into the hard work, humility, motivations and what drives leaders to create winning cultures.
This is as much a book about the history of how to win as it is about what pliable leadership looks like.

[Book · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing NHL Insights!

Craig Custance’s unparalleled behind the scenes access to top winning NHL insiders are woven together into this amazing book. A must read for not only every hockey fan but everyone who wants to learn about successful leadership!

[Jack Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have not read a hockey book in a very long time. I missed it.

With being a General Manager as my dream job. There was so many hockey insights in this book, not only about hockey but about life.

Lessons on empathy, opportunity and more.

I would recommend this book to many.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of the chapters were great but the one on Caps GM Brian MacLellan provided key insights about the Cup team that I had not heard before.

[Brent Vogel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting book on building

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains lots of interesting perspectives from prominent NHL GMs, Owners and Execs. Key takeaway is the importance of communication and consistency/dedication in work to be able to succeed.

[Kevin Larabee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb insight into building winning teams.

[William Henges · Rating 4 out of 5]

made me realize i know nothing about hockey but interesting read… gave some pretty cool insight on how the best in the game think

[no · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gift from a family member that I read on airplanes. Craig Custance's writing is stuffed with the same fluffy cliché in all hockey man hagiography, such that the most interesting chapters, the ones on Meghan Duggan and Tom Dundon, stray from that archetype in subject but not in tone. The juiciest details are some backstory to notable manager missteps in the past few seasons (the Jeannot trade, the Nylander RFA contract standoff, the Tkachuk trade). The pile of books Kyle Dubas reads, presented in an effort to make him seem smart, are all of a genre that will soon be outsourced to AI, if it hasn't been already.

Takeaway:
"Prior to the 2023 trade deadline, BriseBois sent a message to the group text chain for his front office recommending that they read [You're About to Make a Terrible Mistake by Olivier Sibony]. It might be the perfect book title for any NHL team's trade deadline, a time filled with short-term bias and where processes pay off. A few days after we chatted before the 2023 trade deadline, BriseBois traded defenseman Cal Foote, a 2025 first-round pick, and four other draft picks to the Nashville Predators for forward Tanner Jeannot."