Latest news with #JakubVrana
Forbes
20-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
New SAP-NHL Front Office App Streamlines Managers' Access To Key Information
Alex Ovechkin and Jakub Vrana of the Washington Capitals look at an iPad on the bench during a game. ... [+] (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images) For nearly a decade, iPads on benches have allowed NHL players and coaches to access real-time video and data insights during game play. Now, the league's general managers have access to their own iPad tool designed specifically to meet their data needs: the SAP-NHL Front Office App. The platform was developed in partnership with SAP, the global software giant that has collaborated with the NHL over the last decade to help advance and enhance the game by leveraging cutting-edge technologies — including that on-bench app. 'This is just another evolution of the innovation work that that we've done with the NHL over the past 10 years,' said Dan Fleetwood, VP of global sponsorships at SAP. 'When we were looking at the issues or the challenges that we were having with the central office and how to consolidate this information, this was just a logical next step for us.' The initial release of the SAP-NHL Front Office App features a streamlined user interface which houses official data from the NHL's Central Registry, updated daily. 'What we're excited about is being able to host a lot of the things we do right now in one place,' said Columbus Blue Jackets GM Don Waddell, who has worked in NHL front offices for nearly 30 years. 'SAP has done a tremendous job. They're a longstanding partner of the NHL and in business in general. What they do, they do it right.' The league-level layout of the new SAP-NHL Front Office App for iPad. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder The app consists of three main sections. The League View summarizes each team's current and projected off-season salary-cap situation, a draft grid with present and future picks for all clubs, including details on traded picks and draft-pick conditions, and customizable filters for alerts on daily transactions and players to watch. The Team View provides a centralized, sortable hub for contract information for every player in the organization, covering up to eight seasons, as well as a team-specific draft grid. The NHL Player View offers a comprehensive profile of a player's career including game logs, transaction history and contract details, including a PDF image of the player's actual contract. The SAP-NHL Front Office App, which has been in users' hands since December, consolidates and replaces a number of disparate programs and databases that team managers would need to aggregate and analyze when managing their rosters. 'It was really a way to provide official information more efficiently,' said NHL chief operating officer Steve McArdle. 'Take a lot of steps out of the process for the clubs to do what they really need to do — not gather information, but utilize information.' SAP's Business Technology Platform (BTP) enabled the NHL to create a unique and innovative solution that fits the needs of its clubs' front-office staff, and will continue to evolve. 'Their BTP platform really allows for that ongoing customization and that ongoing evolution of what the tool set is,' McArdle added. 'Our GMs and AGMs are not shy about about sharing what they want to see next — they've been very helpful in helping to shape that roadmap. The SAP toolkit allows us to really take that feedback in real and near-real time help to shape the roadmap, which is great.' Columbus Blue Jackets President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Don Waddell. (Photo by ... [+]) For end users like Waddell, the new tool means less paper to carry and less shuffling to find the information that he needs at his fingertips when it's time to structure a trade, manage his team's salary cap or embark on a contract negotiation. 'Instead of carrying around paper with the salary caps for our team, other teams, roster building, it's housed in one location now,' he said. 'This makes my briefcase a little lighter, traveling around. I like that.'
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
The Road Hasn't Been Easy For Jakub Vrana As He's Struggled To 'Put The Pieces Back Together,' But The Capitals Forward Refuses To Give Up
ARLINGTON, V.A. — Sitting in his stall after an optional skate — one he treats with full intensity as he goes through the motions as a regular healthy scratch — Washington Capitals forward Jakub Vrana stares down at his now-faded tattoo of two hockey sticks, three stars and the Stanley Cup that he got with his teammates after winning the esteemed trophy in 2018. It's been seven years since those glory days. He knows the tattoo's fading, that he needs to get it touched up again. And in a way, it's reminsicent of where things stand now, as he faces the toughest part of his career yet in his second stint with the Capitals. For most of the year, Vrana, who earned a one-year contract out of training camp, has watched the action unfold from above, spending the majority of the team's games in the press box as a regular scratch up front. He's played in just 26 games this season, picking up seven goals and four assists as the games have come few and far between. "I haven't really cracked the 10-minute mark on the sheet, but at the same time, I was happy I was playing, trying to make an impact on our game and help the team win games" Vrana told The Hockey News. "Now I'm in this position, and it's even harder." Though he's happy to be back with the organization he's always felt was his home, Vrana said not playing for long periods of time have taken a toll, and he isn't blind to the fact that it's an ongoing uphill battle to prove he still belongs in the NHL. 'It's tough mentally, for sure. Obviously we do want to play and at the same time, we're here and we want to be here and want to play for this team, but it's stuff that, you know, when the stretch is too long," Vrana said, adding, "Honestly it's not easy, just you want to play hockey, that's it. You want to be. When you're not playing for so long, it's not like you kind of have a feeling you're not part of the team, but you are. It's just natural, right? We're humans, and you're going to feel like that a little bit." The hardships didn't start this year, though; the last three years have felt a bit like an endless road for the now 29-year-old. It all started back in 2021, when Washington traded a "frustrated" Vrana to the Detroit Red Wings for Anthony Mantha. He got off to a decent start in Detroit, but then suffered a shouder injury and had to undergo surgery that held him out for an extended period. When he finally returned, Vrana wasn't feeling right, and went to the Red Wings for help. He ultimately entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program for reasons he still keeps to himself, and after six weeks, would return to Detroit only to be placed on waivers and assigned to the American Hockey League. Vrana credits the program with helping him get his physical and mental well-being abck on track, but noted that fallout was difficult to deal with as he was held off the ice, and then upon exiting the program, didn't get his fair chance with the Red Wings. "It's really good. It really helps you, like people are there for you with anything you need, with anything you're going through, they really are there for you and they really help you," Vrana said. "Hockey-wise, it really doesn't make sense to me that I left. I just cracked, you know what I mean? I felt like a broken glass; you can't put the pieces together again, which is kind of sad. "A lot of things didn't make sense to me... you just don't know what other people think, you know and how is their view on things in this business. It's not pretty sometimes and I just kind of had to accept it as it was and I kept working really hard, and I still am. It's just been really hard to stick around and get this opportunity." The challenge since then has been building himself back up. As a person, Vrana feels he has done a lot of good things to get back to where he was, and says that he's a different person now than he was back in 2021. When it comes to his career, though, things haven't gone according to plan, as things didn't work out in Detroit and subsequently, with the St. Louis Blues, before hitting free agency and making his way back to the District. "I'm trying to stay positive, because it's not easy. The last three years, since I left the program, it's been kind of tough. It's been hard to kind of bounce back to where i used to be," Vrana said. "I've been bouncing between the AHL and NHL, been on waivers twice, then traded and then signed a PTO (with Washington this summer). It's not ideal." And with months between stints in the lineup, it's even less ideal, but Vrana is making what he can of it to keep his NHL dream going. "I'm trying to do my best to kind of show that I should get the opportunity again and kind of work my way back to get my spot on the team that I had before in the past," Vrana said. "It feels like it's harder and harder every year. Honestly, that's not easy, but I'm trying to stay positive." Over the course of the season, Vrana and coach Spencer Carbery have had numerous conversations, which have been honest and have made things more transparent between the two. "All I'm looking for is honesty, right? And we have had pretty good conversations (about) kind of, you know, where I'm at. It's kind of hard sometimes, making decisions isn't easy, and you're obviously going to accept it as is and go from there and try to say how you feel," Vrana said, adding, "I wish I could rotate more; we all do, right? We could probably play here and there, but so far, the chances didn't come." "People don't think understand or it's just a really, really difficult thing to come and not play for so many days in a row and so many games in a row, and he's been fantastic. It's hard sometimes as a coach because you want to deliver good news and you want to tell someone that they're going into the lineup and when you constantly are saying, 'Unfortunately, no. Unfortunately, not tonight, unfortunately not tonight,' that's hard and he's handled it like a pro and I appreciate that because it's gone a long way in our room," Carbery said. "I know our guys have a ton of respect for him and the way that he's worked and our coaching staff as well love being around him and love having him here and him, earning his way back to the NHL to this organization, he's done a great job." Despite the circumstances, Vrana said the support from his family and teammates, as well as being back in the District, has made the process easier. "You know my relationship with the team and with the people that work here and anybody that works for this organization, and that makes it way easier than being somewhere in a new environment, but at the same time, you want to play for this team," Vrana pointed out. "It's kind of those mixed feelings at times, but at the same time, we've been playing in a really good spot overall, and as a result, we deliver, itn's not like we struggle and it's really tough decisions." Going into this final stretch, Vrana is keeping his head held high, and he's ready to do whatever he can to continue to prove his worth and show he's the same player capable of being a 20-plus goal scorer. "I'm blessed, right? I'm healthy, I'm playing hockey, I'm on this team... I'm trying to stay positive. I have to keep working hard and I have to believe and that's what I've been doing," Vrana said. "I don't just give up, you know? I'll keep working hard and keep trying to show that that spot belongs to me. "I've done some really good things. On the outside, I deal with stuff way better than I used to. As a hockey player... I'm still the same player."
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
NHL Nugget: Washington Capitals' Jakub Vrana's Birthday Backcheck
Here's today's NHL Nugget – this Birthday Backcheck features Washington Capitals left winger Jakub Vrana, who turns 29 years old on Feb. 28. After being a first-round pick in the 2014 NHL draft, Vrana had two big goals for the Capitals en route to the franchise's first Stanley Cup. After parts of three seasons with the Detroit Red Wings and two seasons in the St. Louis Blues organization, Vrana is back with the Capitals. Brian T. Dessart takes fans on a distinctive ride through the historic-laden NHL with the #NHLNugget. Check out to find where to follow NHL Nugget on social media. And for past NHL Nuggets, click here.
