The Hurricanes on Thursday hired "popular former advanced statistics blogger and former chemist" Eric Tulsky as the team's new Hockey Analyst, according to Chris Peters of CBSSPORTS.com. Tulsky "came to notoriety in hockey circles after his groundbreaking study regarding zone entries and consulted for the Hurricanes on a part-time basis last season." The new full-time role "will have Tulsky providing and analyzing data to assist the hockey operations and coaching staffs." Tulsky in recent years "had been one of the must-read analytics writers with work on Flyers blog Broad Street Hockey, NHLNumbers.com and Outnumbered." He has been published in the Washington Post and FiveThirtyEight.com. Tulsky holds a BA in chemistry and physics from Harvard and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Cal. Tulsky going full-time with the Hurricanes is "just another in a long line of teams investing more in analytics" (CBSSPORTS.com, 8/20). YAHOO SPORTS' Josh Cooper noted the move "sticks with a trend of teams hiring online analytics people to help gain a competitive advantage." Bringing in a person well versed in analytics, like Tulsky, is "always a good way to outsmart the old boys network, which is still present on many many teams" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 8/20).
