NEWSLETTER
Shayna Goldman at The Athletic does a terrific job of tracking and making sense of analytics around the NHL. She is also meticulously tracking the number of individuals hired by NHL teams working in analytics specifically.
On Monday, she updated her list of hires by team front offices. And it serves as a reminder that data has been — and continues to be — an emphasis in Kyle Davidson’s front office in Chicago.
According to Goldman’s list, the Blackhawks have nine people working in analytics, which the most of any organization in the league. Dallas, New Jersey and Seattle have six names on the list, while Toronto has eight.
Goldman lists assistant general manager Jeff Greenberg atop the hierarchy in Chicago, followed by Ryan Kruse, Sam Forstner, Mark Weinstein, Andrew Contis, Dave Radke, Chris McCorkle, Albert Lyu and Zach Brusso. You can see in the second tweet that the Blackhawks list has gone from one of the smallest to the largest in four years.
When Davidson hired Greenberg away from the Cubs — he was in the running for the GM job himself — the task was to help build a new, state-of-the-art data tracking system internally for the Blackhawks to use to separate themselves from the pack. Since then, we’ve heard at various times about the growth of an internal app being used by players, coaches and front office members to inform decisions.
Back in April, more insight into the progress of the Blackhawks’ use of analytics came to light. I’ve spoken with a number of prospects who have also talked about the Blackhawks’ data usage. Headcount is only as good as the people in the roles and the value the organization places on their work. Clearly, the new look Chicago Blackhawks are pushing forward in a unified approach.
