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National Post

How the Canucks' analytics department stacks up against Stanley Cup contenders

Article content Article content Article content Florida Panthers Article content Florida is, by consensus of the handful of NHL people I spoke with, the second-most analytically inclined. Assistant general manager Sunny Mehta is a former derivatives trader who became a professional poker player and then a well-regarded hockey blogger. He has been working in the NHL in various capacities since 2014 and has also consulted for Major League Baseball teams. Article content He was hired by the Panthers in 2020 as vice-president of hockey strategy, then was given an assistant general manager's title in 2023. Article content General manager Bill Zito clearly values his input. Article content Article content Dallas Stars Article content The Stars have only had a true in-house analytics group since 2022, when they hired a former assistant of Kyle Dubas in Matt Rodell to lead their new department. Article content The Stars were already a smartly run organization under GM Jim Nill, consistently delivering strong teams that seemed to qualify for the playoffs year after year. They made the Stanley Cup final in the bubble in 2020. They kept churning out young players to buttress up a roster long led by top-end veteran players like Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin. They had done well finding star defencemen like Miro Heiskanen. Article content Article content But surely the addition of a data-driven group has helped them solidify their standing as one of the NHL's model organizations. Article content Article content Edmonton Oilers Article content For a long time, the Oilers seemed openly defiant of the wisdom data provided. And then they got the game's best player in the fold and maybe it didn't matter. But it always seemed odd they would turn away from a tool that could add to their lineup. Article content And in recent years, they have clearly become more interested in the data and have built a much more complete lineup around Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Article content The Oilers hired a literal oilman in Michael Parkatti in 2023 to lead up their analytics team:. He had previously worked for Suncor energy. Article content Article content The Canucks have had an analytics department of one kind or another for nearly 15 years now. They have been interested in numbers no matter who has been in charge. Aiden Fox, who is the head of the analytics team now, has been praised by management and coaches time and again. Article content