Module 5: Sources of Hockey Data
An Introductory Course in Hockey Analytics
At a Glance
- Where can I Source Hockey Data for Free?
- Who is our Preferred Hockey Data Provider?
- Where are Other Data Sources Not Available to the General Public?
Where can I Source Hockey Data for Free?
To get really good at working with data, you need access to data and need to be using it on a regular basis. When you're first starting out in your hockey analytics journey, however, it may be tough to find good, reliable data sources at low or no cost.
Listed below are a number of free data sources, along with a short description of the source, example ways to leverage the data and a link to the site.
Hockey Statistics is a great resource. Fair warning: it's more advanced than most hockey resources out there. That said, there's a treasure trove of great data, statistical analyses and guidance on advanced hockey stats.
- Ways to leverage: You can download the different datasets/databases and then use them locally in your own hockey analytics efforts.
Natural Stat Trick offers comprehensive advanced hockey statistics, including player and team metrics, shot attempts, scoring chances, zone entries, and more. Their data covers the NHL and provides valuable insights into player and team performance.
- Ways to leverage: You can interact with HTML tables to generate views of interest, which you can then export into CSV files for custom/individual use.
Hockey-Reference provides a vast collection of historical NHL data, including player and team statistics, game logs, standings, and playoff results. It offers a user-friendly interface for exploring and analyzing hockey data. It has both a free portion to the site and a membership-only portion, where you can get advanced statistics. The site has useful how-to videos to help you with access to the data.
- Ways to leverage: You can interact with HTML tables to generate views of interest, which you can then export into various file formats for custom/individual use. You can also share links to the data.
Elite Prospects is a valuable resource for accessing player and team data from various professional leagues around the world. They offer detailed player profiles, statistics, biographical information, and career histories. We use EP for their annual draft prospects coverage, which is one of the best out there.
- Ways to leverage: Elite Prospects enables you to view and interact with the data on their site through HTML tables and views, but don't have export functionality built into the site.
The NHL is rich with up-to-date data, news and information for all things hockey. You can find statistics on players, teams and games and also read information about draft picks, news of the day, etc.
- Ways to leverage: You can export data from different places on the NHL site, typically in CSV or Microsoft Excel format. The NHL also provides an Application Programming Interface (API) that allows developers to access a wide range of NHL data, including game data, player statistics, team information, and more. The API provides opportunities for custom data analysis and visualization.
HockeyDB is a comprehensive database that covers hockey statistics from various leagues, including the NHL, AHL, and international leagues. It offers player profiles, career statistics, and historical team data.
- Ways to leverage: You can click, query and view data and information on the site. The results of player queries, for example, are HTML tables.
PuckPedia offers a wealth of NHL player and team data, including contracts, salaries, cap hits, draft history, and more. It's a valuable resource for understanding the financial aspects of the game.
- Ways to leverage: PuckPedia presents most of their data through HTML-based views, articles and tables. They do provide share and enbed functionality in case you want to share the data.
Money Puck has data going back to 2008. This website features a variety of interesting and informative visualizations. Team power rankings and odds of making the playoffs are staples here and offer insights throughout the season.
- Ways to leverage: presents most of their data through HTML-based views and tables; however, they also provide a rich set of data that you can download as CSV files.
If you enjoy thinking about managing a roster against the salary cap or are curious about the pay of your favorite (or least favorite) players, Spotrac offers data on this subject matter. Plenty of information is available for free on their site and additional information is available for a fee.
- Ways to leverage: Spotraq provides data on their site through HTML tables and views
Lots of data is available here, with excellent data surrounding on-ice matchups and quality of competition faced for teams and skaters. Additional data on zone starts and shifts are quite valuable and offer many insights. Charts on the website are sortable offering instant insights for the user.
- Ways to leverage: Puck IQ provides data on their site through HTML tables and views. They also have interactive visualizations with various filter and drill-down capabilities.
Who is our Preferred Hockey Data Provider?
For non-commercial research and model validation, we use some of the data sources mentioned above. (Always be sure to verify the licensing restrictions of sports data providers, as they vary.) For our daily reports, newsletter content and analytics/models, and courseware, we use a commercial data provider: My Sports Feeds.
Because our data pipelines run daily, we chose a partner that publishes the data in the way that we need it (i.e., via API), so we can run our daily data processing jobs (which include sourcing, wrangling, normalization, and filtering) and get the data to where we need it for our daily refreshes. The prices were reasonable and in-budget for us, thus, My Sports Feeds is our hockey data provider.
For us, the cost of the hockey data is comfortable and provides consistency and predictability to our data processing and pipeline needs. My Sports Feeds also have a variety of options and add-ons you can choose--e.g. betting odds, fantasy metrics, etc.
Other cost-based data providers for hockey data are as follows:
- Some of the data providers we listed above have free and paid portions of their site (e.g., Natural Stat Trick, Hockey-Reference, etc.).
- The Athletic: This is a subscription-based sports news website that provides in-depth sports coverage, including advanced analytics and data-focused articles about hockey.
- InStat Hockey: This is a paid service that offers detailed statistics, video analysis tools, and more.
- McKeen's Hockey: This platform provides scouting services and in-depth player and team analysis for a subscription fee.
- SportsDataio: Comprehensive sports data provider across multiple sports with broad array of APIs for sports data feeds.
- Sportradar: Another comprehensive sports data provider across multiple sports with broad array of APIs for sports data feeds.
There are sure to be more, so we'll leave you to research those on your own.
What are Data Sources that are Not Available to the General Public?
We have worked with many different professional sports clubs, and there's data that you see and much more data that you don't see. For those of you who are pursuing a career in Sports Science, Data Science, or Data Analysts working at professional sports teams, here are some examples of the wealth of data and analytical resources that are not available to the general public.
- Player Health and Fitness Data: Teams collect detailed information on player health, fitness levels, and medical histories, which can influence strategic decisions. This data is kept private due to privacy laws and regulations.
- Detailed Player Tracking Data: With the introduction of advanced player tracking technology, teams can collect granular data on every player's movements and actions during practices and games. While some summary data might be shared with the public, the full dataset is typically proprietary.
- Internal Scouting Reports: Teams have scouting departments that generate detailed reports on players around the league and in lower levels of play. These reports, which can include both quantitative and qualitative analysis, are typically confidential.
- Practice Performance Data: Teams often track performance data from practices, scrimmages, and training sessions. This data can provide insights into player development and readiness, but is usually not shared publicly.
- Psychological Evaluations: Some teams conduct psychological assessments of their players to better understand their mental strength, teamwork skills, and how they might respond under pressure. This data is kept confidential.
- Player Readiness: Teams often have daily surveys that poll all players on different metrics such as fatigue, emotional state, injury, etc. to assess the readiness of individual players (and the team) for each match.
- Proprietary Analytics and Models: Many teams have analytics departments that develop proprietary statistical models and algorithms to evaluate player performance and team strategies. The specifics of these models are typically kept confidential to maintain a competitive advantage.
- Injury Reports and Rehabilitation Progress: While basic injury information is often disclosed due to league rules, detailed reports about the nature of injuries, the expected recovery timelines, and the specifics of rehabilitation programs are usually kept confidential.
Remember, the use and sharing of some of this information, particularly health-related data, are heavily regulated to protect player privacy and rights.
Module 5 Summary
In this module, we listed out many of the different hockey data sources you can use to get started. Many of the ones we listed have some free access to data, and of course many have paid access as well.
If you're a hobbyist, we would recommend using the free resources first. Get to know the data, explore how you can source and analyze it and then move onto potentially paying a subscription fee for regular, daily access to updated data. The most valuable lesson we learned was working hard to learn how to leverage the data while we explored freely available data until we felt confident enough to do something with it.
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