Silver Nuggets: List of websites for Hockey Analysis
It seems like every week, there's a new website dedicated to hockey analysis popping up. Before I start to feel old and reminisce about the "old days" with only 2-3 websites available for the public to access hockey statistics, let me say that all of this growth is fantastic. Fans are more engaged than ever and we continue to push boundaries when it comes to deconstructing, synthesizing, and analyzing our favourite sport.
One potential issue that may come up due to all this growth is that it becomes very hard to keep track of everything that's going on! Over the summer, we asked our readers about what they'd love to learn about on the site, and many of you responded that you'd love to be able to learn about hockey analysis. Though I try to direct you to other authors in the blogosphere who I feel produce well-written analysis, you may want to try your own hand at it! Thus, to follow up Ross' Nuggets a couple weeks ago on Advanced Stats Explainers, here's a list of useful websites to get you started.
Disclaimer: I tried to be comprehensive but I definitely could've missed some. Feel free to comment or tweet me if you think I did and I'll add it in!
Site | Creator(s) | What does it have? | Really good for |
Gabriel Desjardins | The "original" site for fancy stats, Gabe's database has most common metrics that you're familiar with (Quality of Competition, Corsi, Zone starts, etc.) | Easy to find what you're looking for with simple looking database. Can toggle for the filters that you want. | |
David Johnson | Really good catch-all site. Has primary goals, assist, point totals, as well as rates/60 as well. | You've heard me talk about WOWYs before, and this is the site for it. Go to an individual player page and you'll be able to see the performance of players together! | |
Andrew Thomas and Sam Ventura; open-source | Created in response to ExtraSkater shutting down, WoI is a community-project that is the most comprehensive stats site out there. If you search long enough, you'll be able to find almost anything. | Flexibility in what you're searching for. WoI also has Skater Hextally, WAR, and hosts projects from Sens blogger @MannyElk | |
Greg Sinclair | In-game stats | My go-to for mid-game stat reporting, as well as AHL stats as it's extremely hard to find! | |
Brad Timmins | In-game stats; broad level team reports | Created by Silver Seven's very own, Natural Stat Trick's game flows are really good for telling a game story, and has all the basic information needed to see who did well in certain metrics that night. | |
Josh Weissbock | A database that compiles statistics for the WHL, OHL, QMJHL, AHL, and USHL | Junior numbers are so hard to find, especially when you have to go through the official league pages. Josh's site helps with all of that and updates regularly. Check in on your favourite prospect! | |
Unknown | This basic site is really good for comparing how teams stack against one another in things like score-adjusted Corsi, EVSV%, and shots. | Use the data-range to compare teams months, seasons, or even pre/post-coaching changes! | |
Tom Poraszka | One of the first of the post-Capgeek cap sites to launch, GF has really nice team pages, an updated recent signing board, and a section about the NHL's CBA | I like using it to get a quick, clean team overview if I'm looking for cap situations, or to keep track of which free agents are available. | |
Unknown | Cap information (player, team), buyout/waiver calculators, FAQ's | The second in the new cap sites, Hockey's Cap also documents trade details right on their front page and more options for sorting players. Be sure to check out their buyout/waiver calculator as well | |
Exactly what it says! Play around with your favourite teams, come up with trade proposals, and save these rosters for emails and forum posts! | Has the best Armchair GM feature out there; will also be documenting rosters for the upcoming World Cup of Hockey | ||
Kent Wilson | A blog focused on advanced stats, NHLNumbers also has solid cap information and player statistics | Their cap information breaks things down by cap hit AND salary, which is important for teams like Ottawa. In addition, the legend/FAQ acts as a pretty good explainer for many advanced stats concepts | |
Unknown | Want a hockey encyclopedia? This is it! Look at players, teams, seasons, coaches, etc. | Their goalie statistics page has something called GSAA (Goals Saved Above Average), which is a really good goalie performance indicator. In addition, their play index allows you to find comparable players very easily. | |
Unknown | Your hockey database; includes boxcar numbers for every player on every team | The quickest way to search for individual players and their season numbers over the course of their career | |
Unknown | The most advanced database in terms of prospect boxcar statistics + career accomplishments. | EP is REALLY good for checking in on European prospects, who's information can be hard to find | |
Tom Awad | One of the oldest sites dedicated to hockey analysis out there, HP has a ton of explainers, in addition to Hall of Fame, Goals Vs. Threshold, and draft numbers. | Check it out for its HoF database, GVT, VUKOTA, and many other acronyms that you'll learn all about by its fantastic authors | |
Rob Vollman | Remember player usage charts? This is where they originated for public viewing! | Rob also has comprehensive statistic databases for download, a team luck calculator, and stuff on goaltender quality starts. | |
Nathan Currier | Check out how teams rank in terms of injuries here! | / | |
Unknown | The most comprehensive NCAA hockey database; filter by league, player, and much more. | / | |
A great prospect resource, McKeen's has a database that looks at even-strength goal differential, powerplay goals, and much more for CHL players | / | ||
Spencer Mann | Player/Team CF%, passing data, advanced goalie data, xG | / | |
Conor Tompkins | Visualizations of NWHL salary, post-season goaltender data, dCorsi, and much more. | ||
Dom Galamini | HERO charts, Glass-to-Crosby Scale | HERO charts are one of my favourite graphics to get a quick, single snapshot of a player's underlying metrics | |
Micah Blake McCurdy | Player history strips, WOWY visualizations, team rankings; player rankings on a team. | Micah pushes the boundaries of hockey visualizations and his site is a go-to for innovative ways to evaluate players, teams, and systems | |
Unknown | Game reports, shift charts, play diagrammer, and skater matchups | ||
Carolyn + Merrin | Team salary bands | ||
Unknown | Line combinations, starting goalie information |
Sens Links
- Couple of Sens games since our last Nuggets! First, the recaps from a win vs. the Calgary Flames! [Silver Seven, SensChirp, Eye on the Sens, Ottawa Citizen]
- Next, your recaps from the home-and-home vs. the Red Wings. [Silver Seven G1, Silver Seven G2, SensChirp G1, SensChirp G2, Ottawa Citizen G1, Ottawa Citizen G2]
- Want a quick summary of which players did well last week? Check out Ross' Ups and Downs! [Silver Seven]
- The last "last week" nugget of Sens news comes via Trevor's Five Thoughts for Friday, which touch on some interesting tidbits re: Mikael Wikstrand, a new GM, and much more. [Silver Seven]
- ICYMI, it's now November! Thus, we're looking back at October. Share your opinion on which players did well and which didn't with a monthly Rank the Performances! [Silver Seven]
- What's on tap for this week? Three games, starting with the Habs tonight. Here are your weekly previews! [Silver Seven, WTYKY]
- No real roster moves for the Sens other than sending Max McCormick, who was here on emergency recall, back down to Binghamton. Matt Puempel remains with the big club, and is reunited with Shane Prince as both feature as top-six left wingers. [Ottawa Citizen]
- The biggest Sens news of the week comes after a controversial suspension of Mark Stone for the Sens next two games after a hit to the head of Landon Ferraro. Is Ray going to hate Stone now? [NHL Video, Silver Seven, Ottawa Citizen]
- Nichols discusses the Stone suspension, the recent criticism of Erik Karlsson, and a Eugene Melnyk interview from Prime Time Sports. A lot of the comments came due to misinterpretation of his quotes in this Citizen article on 3-on-3 OT. [6th Sens, Ottawa Citizen]
- With more on Erik Karlsson, here's the amazing Andrew with a piece that I echo wholeheartedly. [WTYKY]
- The article you've all been waiting for: Chet Sellers' Sens-themed Halloween costume rankings. [WTYKY]
- Bobby Ryan really stepped up his game last week and got on the scoresheet in a number of ways. Rob looks at the contributions of another "Ryan" [Bonk's Mullet]
- In all seriousness, another player who had a decent week was Zack Smith, who I'm not surprised to learn worked on his skating the most last summer. [Ottawa Citizen]
- The BSens played a high-scoring game against Utica, and lost in Matt O'Connor's home debut. [Silver Seven]
- Jeff's Bingo Bites touch on the BSens special teams + goaltender situation. Who will end up with more starts in net? Will the powerplay improve without much offensive talent, especially on the backend? [Silver Seven]
- Nichols talks about 'compete' and how intangibles influence our perception of players. [6th Sens]
- Callum argues that Chris Wideman is the new Patrick Wiercioch. Granted, most players who the Sens blogosphere have gotten behind ended up being okay (Zibanejad, Wiercioch, Hoffman, Condra, etc.). With more on Wideman, check out the Citizen column that features comments from the coach who recruited Wideman to U Miami (Ohio), Red Wings bench boss Jeff Blashill. [Silver Seven, Ottawa Citizen]
- Curtis Lazar's status is still up in the air, but Joe still tried to turn the situation into a positive one, much like Curtis would try to do. [Bonk's Mullet]
- This week's Weekly Question comes from Trevor, who asks how long Dave Cameron will continue to trot out a third-pairing of Mark Borowiecki and Jared Cowen while Chris Wideman, who's looked capable in his couple of games, remains a healthy scratch. [Silver Seven]
- In terms of prospect news, the Mikael Wikstrand situation has taken another turn. [VF (Swedish newspaper), 6th Sens, Ottawa Citizen]
- Peter has some more on Wikstrand, some prospect updates, and documents his observations on the BSens in his weekly column. [Eye on the Sens]
- Your end-of-Nuggets audio courtesy of Chet + Luke, who are now on Episode Neil of their beloved podcast! [Silver Seven]
Other Links
- We'll kick things off with three recaps of the recent Rochester Hockey Analytics Conference. If you're interested in where hockey analysis is trending, these are the articles to read. Our own Luke Peristy attended the conference and has some thoughts in a WTYKY post. [TSN, Hockey-Graphs, WTYKY]
- Travis Yost has been looking at bad contracts lately, and argues that Dan Girardi -- who a Certain Someone thought was better than Erik Karlsson back in 2011-12 -- belongs in the conversation. [TSN]
- Ready for some tactical breakdowns? Check out Justin Bourne's piece on Josh Jooris' great defensive play, despite a goal still being scored. Also, a wonderful piece on Wings SBN blog Winging it in Motown on the Wings breakout system that we saw in full effect last week. [The Score, Winging it in Motown]
- Moving right along, here's Elliotte Friedman's 30 thoughts column. [Sportsnet]
- A great piece on the fun that comes from small sample sizes at the start of every season. [Russian Machine Never Breaks]
- Despite a weird start around the league, last year's leading scorer is still going strong. A piece on how Jamie Benn, a 5th-round pick, ended up where he is today. [Sportsnet]
- Although I'm having a ton of fun watching the Leafs lose (almost) every game, there have been some noticeable changes in how they play which don't bode well for all the Leaf-hating in the future. [The Hockey News]
- TSN has a piece on Stephanie Vail, a Twitter user who's gifs you must've stumbled across (even if all you do is read our game recaps). [TSN]
- A wonderful piece on the National Womens Hockey League and their ever-expanding media coverage. [Sports Illustrated]
- A piece on a young Canadian team that the Sens will face next week, the Vancouver Canucks. [Sportsnet]
Thanks for reading!
