NHL teams two summers ago were "tripping over themselves to hire the best and the brightest and hockey-based data analysts," but the league today "neither looks nor feels revolutionized," according to Kevin McGran of the TORONTO STAR. To some, "high-profile oustings of analytics professionals through the summer signalled a counter-revolution by the old guard." But to its backers, the "days of MoneyPuck are only beginning." Maple Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello said of analytics, "I’m a total supporter. It’s a measuring tool that gives you an awareness that sometimes supports what you’re thinking, or allows you to think differently. It’s a tool that is valuable to decisions that are made." McGran notes it is the NHL's "smaller markets -- some with smaller budgets -- where analytics is making its biggest inroads." The shift "seems owner-driven, rather [than] being driven by hockey’s front-offices." One reason for this is that today’s owners "base their livelihoods on analytics in their own businesses, and probably would prefer their hockey operations people to talk the same language, rather than offer up old-school hockey bafflegab." But there are still "strongly held feelings that analytics matter less to fast-paced, unpredictable hockey than to slow-paced repetitive baseball" (TORONTO STAR, 8/30).
