A newbie-friendly walkthrough of different hockey analytics resources

We’re now over twenty games into the season. With a roughly a quarter of the season done, I’m less wary of looking at statistics for fear of small-sample distortions. That’s my excuse for doing something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.

There’s a lot of ways to enjoy hockey, and I won’t ever wag my finger at someone who doesn’t like numbers side of it. If you’ve ever been quantitatively curious but felt like analytics were unapproachable, I’ve got something that could help.

I’ve walked through my favorite hockey analytics and statistics resources and recorded how I use them, what I like about them, and what seems most meaningful to me. In case you want to get into this stuff, these videos might be a helpful start for you.

I’ll add that creating and maintaining these sites is expensive. RMNB subscribes to all of the sites that have subscriptions, and we invite you to join us if you’re a user too. (We also have our own Patreon, in case you wanna support us even if you have an adblocker on.)

Natural Stat Trick

https://www.naturalstattrick.com/

What I like about NST:

• Utilitarian layouts of team and player data in tables
• In-game shot-attempt data
• Player data with and without specific teammates

HockeyViz

https://hockeyviz.com/

What I like about HockeyViz:

• Pretty and intuitive
• Front-page dashboards for playoff chances and more
• Impact and on-ice heatmaps
• Novel stats like “Setting”

Evolving Hockey

https://evolving-hockey.com

What I like about EH:

• Goals Above Replacement catch-all stat
• GAR broken down by component
• Play-by-play query data

Moneypuck

https://moneypuck.com/

What I like about Moneypuck:

• A model that is super down on the Caps
• Game-by-game win projections
• In-game win percentage over time
• Goalie, forward lines, and D-pair leaderboards

Hockey-reference, NHL.com, and more

https://www.hockey-reference.com/

What I like about hockey-ref:

• Quick search
• Box car statistics

What I like about NHL.com:

• Almost nothing

Thanks for watching and reading. This story might be a good bookmark if you ever feel like delving back in. If you have any questions, drop in the comments and I’ll do my best.