NHL’s new tracking technology could change way game is played

Expect an onslaught of data to hit the NHL soon. It will almost certainly revolutionize how coaches, players and fans understand the game.

The NHL this week tested chipbased puck and player tracking for the first time in regular-season games. The league says the system will be in place for the beginning of next season.

The NHL’s Dave Lehanski said the new system will generate 10,000 “data points” per game. Currently the league generates about 350 data points per game.

“That alone, at the end of the day, you’re going to have a massive amount of new data that no one has ever seen before,” Lehanski said.

The NHL Players’ Association is “optimistic and hopeful” about data tracking ’s future, a spokesman said.

“(But) it’s also very important that this technology minimizes any intrusiveness on the players.”

As it currently stands, teams won’t be able to use data learned from the new tracking system in salary arbitration, contract negotiations or “other player decisions/ transactions.”

The NHLPA and the league have an understanding that coaches will be able to use tracking data for ingame strategy and player deployment. How the new data ends up being used could be useful, or very distracting.

“More information isn’t necessarily good information,” HockeyData’s Garret Hohl said in an interview. HockeyData is a Vancouver-based provider of hockeyspecific analytics and information to teams, players, agents and scouts.

Still, there are three areas Hohl believes will be enhanced through improved puck and player tracking: better evaluation of player performance — data points that analysts have long craved is more complete information about passing and goalie positioning — better understanding of player fatigue, and a better understanding how team systems work.

On the latter point, Hohl points out how data analysis has been revolutionary in basketball.

NHL teams currently use wearable GPS-based tracking systems during practice sessions — the Canucks declined to discuss specifics on how they use the system, which is provided by Catapult Systems — and other sports have long used these systems in game to better understand the physical demands of their sports and to bolster training methods to improve their team’s competitiveness.

The usage of wearable technology is still a discussion point between the league and the NHLPA; the move to allowing data tracking seems likely to push the two parties toward a broader agreement in how movement data can be used in player analysis and welfare.

One sport that has seen an incredible data-led revolution on the coaching side is rugby.

“It’s hugely beneficial for us,” Canadian men’s rugby sevens national team coach Damian McGrath said. McGrath has been coaching the various forms of rugby for more than 20 years and has seen how data tracking has driven his sport.

“There’s no hiding,” he said. “It gives you a huge insight on work rate.”