Wyshynski: How the NHL’s player-tracking data made it to fans
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Hockey fans are now able to see which NHL players are among the league’s fastest (and slowest) — and not just at the All-Star skills competition.
“Top skating speed” is one of a dozen advanced analytics tabulated on the NHL EDGE stats site. It’s the league’s new clearinghouse for puck- and player-tracking data, published for public consumption for the first time. Provided the public has the patience to consume it.
Finding out who’s the fastest forward in the NHL? Pretty easy. The top 10 players for each NHL EDGE analytic are updated on the front page of the stats site. We know that Winnipeg Jets center Rasmus Kupari hit 23.95 mph in the second period of an Oct. 17 game against the Los Angeles Kings, putting him at the top for top skating speed this season.
Finding out who has the lowest top skating speed this season is not as easy. It took me over two hours, searching player by player, pulling down each menu around 450 times, to determine that Travis Boyd of the Arizona Coyotes topped out at just 19.53 mph, the slowest “top speed” of any NHL forward through Monday’s games.
That’s a lot of effort to find a Travis Boyd stat, if we’re being honest.
NHL EDGE gives us some context about Kupari that we don’t get for Boyd. The Jets forward’s top speed puts him in the 99th percentile among all NHL forwards. But for below-average skaters like Boyd, their percentile is listed as “below 50th” in that category — the same designation given to any player who is under the 50th percentile for any NHL EDGE analytic.
To be clear, it’s not like this for traditional on-ice stats. I can find out in a matter of seconds who has the worst plus/minus rating in the NHL: Forward Filip Zadina with a minus-14, one of many, many San Jose Sharks currently in contention for that dishonor. Zadina is not “below 50th” among peers. He’s last overall, out of 699 players. In another sport, ESPN’s QBR stat for NFL quarterbacks readily showcases the best and worst in the metric.
