On Oct. 23, the NHL launched its new advanced statistics website using puck and player-tracking technology. The site, NHL Edge, gives fans access to a new set of statistics involving speed, location, and distance.
The new site has statistics dating back to the 2021-22 season when the tracking technology was first launched. Previously, this data was only seen in some limited forms as part of the television broadcasts. The most obvious example of this for fans of the Anaheim Ducks was the use of a puck tail on the Bally’s Sports broadcasts during power plays last season. While it may have elicited distasteful memories of the 1990s-era glowing puck technology, the newer version is cleaner, albeit less useful in the 20 years since high-definition television has become available.
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NHL Edge gives fans access to a treasure trove of data, but it is still a work in progress. I’m excited to see how the analytics community responds to these new data sets, and The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn has given his laundry list of suggestions for new features (from, “How the NHL Can Improve its Brand New Player, Puck-Tracking Data,” The Athletic, Oct. 25, 2023), including passing data and on-and-off puck nuances. After gathering the information for this piece, my biggest issue is with the website’s UI. Selecting a player’s page requires the use of several drop-boxes that reset upon loading, leading to repetitive clicking and scrolling. A task as simple as finding the fastest skater on the Ducks means re-selecting the team and scrolling through the player drop-box one by one.
Here are some of Anahiem’s most notable statistics through six games using this data. This will not include their Thursday (Oct. 26) contest against the Boston Bruins. Because the sample sizes are so small, I’ve decided to include last season’s figures as well.
Fastest Skater: Frank Vatrano (22.77 miles per hour)
Not only did Frank Vatrano show off his breakaway speed with his overtime winner against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Oct. 24, but he set the team’s new high speed this season in the early moments of the second period. During this play, Ryan Strome shoveled the puck out of the defensive zone, and Vatrano got on his horse in the neutral zone to chase it down. His immediate pressure on Columbus’ Erik Gudbranson forced an icing. Nothing came out of the resulting offensive zone faceoff, but it was Vatrano’s hustle that created the opportunity.
Interestingly enough, Max Jones clocked in the team’s second-highest speed at 22.08 mph. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Jones shouldn’t be mistaken as a burner, but his 2016 Draft profile is a reminder that he is an excellent skater with some downhill speed. Urho Vaakanainen has the third-fastest speed, just behind Jones at 22.07 mph.
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While I do find a player’s top speed to be fascinating, context is important. Both Vatrano’s and Jones’ top speeds were achieved in the early goings of the period with fresh ice and a full head of steam going into the neutral zone. Even though Jones was flying, he wasn’t able to prevent the icing violation he was attempting to nullify. Vaakanainen’s top speed is an outlier only because it happened in the middle of a period, but he reached it by chasing down an odd-man rush that began because he got caught too deep in his offensive zone.
Last Season: Frank Vatrano (23.33 mph)
Hardest Shot: Jamie Drysdale (92.61 mph)
Jamie Drysdale hasn’t seen the ice much this season, but his first-period Howitzer in the opener against the Vegas Golden Knights remains the high-water mark for Anaheim’s hardest shot. This is a superlative I expect to change hands a few times, as the Ducks have four players who shot harder than 93 mph last season, including Radko Gudas, who broke the century mark while with the Florida Panthers (101.71 mph).
The obvious shortcoming with shot speed is that accuracy is a complete afterthought. Drysdale’s team-pacing one-timer was a low line-drive that would have been a pad save had it not missed everything except the endboards. Shooting so hard that the goaltender can’t see it is one way to score, but this is a statistic that would be better served separated between “hardest shot” and “hardest shot on goal.”
Last Season: Simon Benoit (99.58 mph)
Distance Skated: Cam Fowler (21.11 miles)
It should be no surprise that Anaheim’s workhorse defenseman has logged the longest distance in every season since player tracking has become available. In fact, Cam Fowler managed 8.9 miles per 60 minutes of ice time a year ago, the 13th highest among skaters who averaged 21 minutes per night.
Distance skated as a raw metric is interesting because it implies a high usage rate, but poor play can also inflate the numbers. Fowler is a penalty-killer, and the Ducks’ lack of discipline last season and through six games this year have left the team shorthanded for a significant amount of time. He’s already traveled 3.21 miles on the penalty-kill this year, whereas the league-average defenseman has moved less than 1.2 miles in similar situations.
Last Season: Cam Fowler (282.68 miles)
Along with these new speed and distance-based statistics, NHL Edge has statistics for zone time and shot location. With the Ducks nearing the end of their rebuild, it’ll be interesting to see how some of these statistics improve over time, as well as figuring out which players will be the ones to set the new high bars. We’ll keep an eye on this data as the season unfolds.
