A new book by a former NHL player accusing the National Hockey League of bias against French Canadian players has stirred up some reaction around the league. 

Bob Sirois, who played for the Washington Capitals and Philadelphia Flyers in the late-1970s, claims in his book "Le Québec mis en échec: la discrimination envers les Québécois dans le LNH (Quebec bodychecked: discrimination against Quebeckers in the NHL) that the league is prejudiced against French Canadian players, using statistics and charts to prove the case. 

Sirois' book is being released this week and isn't available in English or outside of Quebec. TSN reports the subject matter would only appeal to a narrow audience and no English publisher would pick up its rights.

I haven't read Sirois' book so I'm in no position to dispute his statistics but I would suggest perhaps the true reason for any real or perceived decline in the number of French Canadians in the NHL is the increase in European and American players swelling its ranks as well as the depth of talent coming out of the English Canadian junior leagues. 

As Jeff Marek of Hockey Night in Canada recently said in an interview regard Sirois' book, "The rest of the world has caught up and in a lot of ways surpassed Quebec as far as making hockey players". 

Sirois also singled out the Montreal Canadiens for not drafting as many French-Canadians as it used to, claiming general manager Bob Gainey only drafted two Quebecers during his eight years as GM of the Dallas Stars. 

Gainey's record in Dallas however appears more reflective of his search for the best available players regardless of nationality rather than of bias toward a single group. 

As for the Canadiens draft record, it should be noted that, from 1995-96 to 2000-01 the club was managed by Rejean Houle (a Quebecer) and from 2000-01 to 2002-03 by Andre Savard (a Quebecer), yet in total the Habs in those years drafted a total of 13 Quebec-born players, while during Gainey's tenure from 2003 to present the Habs drafted 11 Quebec-born players.

Are we to assume by Houle's and Savard's draft records they were biased against their fellow Quebecers?

The best conclusion drawn from those draft records is the Canadiens sought out the best available talent based on their scouting reports regardless of nationality. 

One shouldn't automatically dismiss the notion Quebec-born players might face some discrimination or bias during their playing careers outside Quebec, but given the truly international makeup of today's NHL the suggestion the league is actively or unconsciously prejudiced toward French-Canadians appears absurd.