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Leagues and Governing Bodies

NHL redesigns stats presentation

The NHL is rolling out a statistical redesign as the next step in its continued push to derive revenue from its digital assets.

The efforts follow from the league’s announcement last week of a five-year North American partnership with SAP that makes the company the league’s official cloud software provider. NHL.com now will offer 35 additional statistical metrics, with the new offerings being presented alongside traditional measures such as goals and assists. The league also has redesigned the presentation of the statistics pages of NHL.com to feature more visual cues and player headshots.

But in a broader sense, the NHL has drawn a road map for its deal with SAP that will see the league using the company’s Hana database-management platform to ultimately try and make NHL.com the only site needed for hockey fans. “Along with everything else we offer on NHL.com, these stats should be a huge driver of traffic to the site and can be a real game-changer,” said NHL Chief Operating Officer John Collins.

While these advanced statistics are calculated using data from game sheets and the real-time scoring systems the NHL already has, they have mostly found a home outside of official NHL platforms on fan-operated sites and blogs. With the redesign, the NHL will aim to be the home for the most up-to-date version of stats as well as the driver of new ways to analyze the game. The league also will change the name of some of the stats to better reflect what they measure. For example, the statistic known as “Corsi,” which tracks shot attempts taken while a specific player is on the ice, is named after a former NHL goaltender. That stat now will appear as “shot attempts for.”

The next step in the NHL’s long-term plan will be unveiled in April, with the league wanting to enhance the way traditional stats are visualized. For each stat measure, there will be graphical elements added that allow fans to compare players head-to-head visually in statistics. The league also will introduce advanced filters that will allow for customized searches. For example, a user could search for goal leaders in the last five minutes of the third period, or figure out which Canadian left winger over 6 feet tall has the most assists.

“We did the [Web page] design with future proofing in mind, knowing that this is what we want the basics to look like and then we can add elements on top of that in a way that’s seamless for the user,” said Chris Foster, director of digital business development at the NHL.

Also in April, in time for the postseason, the NHL will unveil a playoff predictor model that will provide probabilities of every game and series. The league will showcase that model as part of its editorial features going into the playoffs, and the predictor also will be integrated into a playoffs bracket challenge on the league website.

The NHL wants to introduce the matchup-prediction model to the regular season next year, as well, along with using the player-versus-player statistical measurements further to spark more discussion around things like fantasy hockey, the trade deadline and free agency. “We like to encourage our fans to be that at-home GM or coach,” Foster said.

For what the NHL is calling “phase three” of its enhancement, league officials have started working with data scientists to determine the next metric or comparison factor hockey could offer to its fans. For example, Foster said the league is taking further looks at time on ice, or if there is another metric that can compare goalies to one another better than a traditional measure like goals against, which depends heavily on the quality of shots faced.

But the most ambitious step of the overall process for the NHL will be a complete digitization of every game sheet dating to the league’s creation in 1917. When completed, it will allow fans full access to every official stat kept from any game or year, as well as a way to compare players across every season.

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