Speculation: Oilers hire Tyler Dellow

[dustrock]

www.twitter.com/mc79hockey

Per Bob McKenzie. "Dellow's site (mc79hockey.com) ceased to be operational/accessible overnight. Dellow's landing spot believed to be EDM. #fancystats"

Hockey analytics guru.

that you, Dellow?

Congratulations, great news for you and the Oilers.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

If I was a decision-maker like MacT, I'd specifically want the guy calling me an idiot to work for me.

Who cares about feelings? He cares about winning and knowing where you're wrong, and why, helps you win.

Sad day for my club, I was hopeful that the Oilers would go on being a doormat. I guess that dream is coming to an end.

Yeah, from a far that does seem like a good idea, the reality is a little different however.

 

[dustrock]

It says a lot about Dellow's work, that the very people that he is the harshest critic of, chose to hire him in an analytics role.

Exactly.

 

[BroadwayJay*]

Yeah, from a far that does seem like a good idea, the reality is a little different however.

The bonus, of course, is now you get to call him an idiot because you sign his paychecks.

In seriousness, a yes man is useless. You need critical analysis for decision-making.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Maybe this will allow what many seem to want, Dellows will just walk around tell everyone who isn't superstar that they suck and should get better or quit. That should fire them up?

 

[Gobo]

Maybe this will allow what many seem to want, Dellows will just walk around tell everyone who isn't superstar that they suck and should get better or quit. That should fire them up?

Seems a lot of people don't get Dellows work. The Pyhrric face off stuff he was doing was incredible. With all the resources he has now, I'm very happy as an Oilers fan

 

[dustrock]

We can argue all day/all year about the relevance of "fancy stats", but surely we can agree that Dellow taking issues like "Why is Taylor Hall's Corsi so bad this year?" (and why did it go into a tailspin around December?), and "Why did Gagner and RNH suddenly start winning more faceoffs?" at least makes us look at hockey in a different way.

He was obviously super-interested in the Oilers, and spent a lot of time going over video to answer issues like this, issues it's possible the Oilers themselves hadn't realized.

 

[Fixed to Ruin]

Didn't Eakins say that Dellow is a "smart guy" one time during an interview with Stauffer on Oilers now?

 

[McJadeddog]

I think its hilarious that people who don't believe in advanced stats *still* think that they know better than the paid professionals of hockey. The men paid to run NHL franchises are jumping on board fairly quickly, but yet random internet people claim to know more than these NHL executives. It's hilarious and sad at the same time.

Good for Tyler, bad for me, as I enjoyed reading his articles.

 

[Tw0Shoes]

We can argue all day/all year about the relevance of "fancy stats", but surely we can agree that Dellow taking issues like "Why is Taylor Hall's Corsi so bad this year?" (and why did it go into a tailspin around December?), and "Why did Gagner and RNH suddenly start winning more faceoffs?" at least makes us look at hockey in a different way.

He was obviously super-interested in the Oilers, and spent a lot of time going over video to answer issues like this, issues it's possible the Oilers themselves hadn't realized.

I remember an interview with Hall where they were talking advanced stats, and he was saying people were saying he had bad corsi but no one could tell him how to get better corsi. I think that'll change.

 

[Roof Daddy]

The hire can't hurt matters, but I'm not the biggest fan of advanced stats and the like. There are plenty of intangibles that go along with the game that no statistician can incorporate into their evaluations. Sometimes coaches play a hunch with line combos and it works. When the dust settles, an advanced stats freak might be able to crunch the numbers to explain why it worked, but it was gut feeling that initiated it.

Far from excited, but glad management is leaving no stone unturned.... well, with everything but our situation down the middle.

 

[Moose Coleman]

The other thing that's interesting is that Dellow (among many others) did a lot of good, interesting work for free on his own time. Now he'll have KatzBucks to work with, so it will be cool to see what he can do with actual resources (not that we'll get to see the work).

 

[Beerfish]

I think its hilarious that people who don't believe in advanced stats *still* think that they know better than the paid professionals of hockey. The men paid to run NHL franchises are jumping on board fairly quickly, but yet random internet people claim to know more than these NHL executives. It's hilarious and sad at the same time.

Good for Tyler, bad for me, as I enjoyed reading his articles.

- Over the past 7 or 8 years of this franchise average joe from this forum could do at least as good if not a better job of running the team.

- The guy they just hired was not a paid hockey man, he was joe fan like anyone else that thought he knew better than the pros and low and behold he is now hired.

It's interesting how all the average joe fans that were dissed and laughed at by media and alike are now getting hired by teams or becoming radio hosts etc.

The average fan is not as dumb as people think. The average hockey exec is not as smart as people think.

 

[Marlo Stanfield]

From Greg Wyshynski today: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-p...tml?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

And Dellow was hired – after well over a year of flirtation between himself and the Oilers – because he had a few key personnel pushing for it.

So this could possibly be Eakins pushing for him.

 

[Karsa Orlong]

I am over the moon about this hire. A few years ago I was very cautious about advanced stats like many people here, but it was through regularly reading Dellow's blog that i have learned to interpret these stats in a way that i now feel confident in saying has "the proper context", and can figure out for myself if they are really telling us something.

It's really is too bad they had to take the site down, although i understand why. If he was going to any other team i think i would actually be depressed about this, but since he is going to the Oilers i suppose that will curb the loss of his blog.

 

[ThatGuy22]

The hire can't hurt matters, but I'm not the biggest fan of advanced stats and the like. There are plenty of intangibles that go along with the game that no statistician can incorporate into their evaluations. Sometimes coaches play a hunch with line combos and it works. When the dust settles, an advanced stats freak might be able to crunch the numbers to explain why it worked, but it was gut feeling that initiated it.

Far from excited, but glad management is leaving no stone unturned.... well, with everything but our situation down the middle.

Being able to figure out why something worked is an extremely valuable thing though. If you determine why a "gut feeling" worked, the chances of being able to repeat it increase.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

From Greg Wyshynski today: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-p...tml?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

And Dellow was hired – after well over a year of flirtation between himself and the Oilers – because he had a few key personnel pushing for it.

So this could possibly be Eakins pushing for him.

Him or maybe Howson.

 

[RebuildTheRebuild]

Him or maybe Howson.

I thought MacT said he looks at analytics/advanced stats in one of his press conferences. I am not completely sure. Regardless of who pushed for him I think this is a good hire.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Seems a lot of people don't get Dellows work. The Pyhrric face off stuff he was doing was incredible. With all the resources he has now, I'm very happy as an Oilers fan

No, I get it, but just because of that work "the way he carries himself" doesn't get to be ignored.

 

[Moose Coleman]

- Over the past 7 or 8 years of this franchise average joe from this forum could do at least as good if not a better job of running the team.

- The guy they just hired was not a paid hockey man, he was joe fan like anyone else that thought he knew better than the pros and low and behold he is now hired.

It's interesting how all the average joe fans that were dissed and laughed at by media and alike are now getting hired by teams or becoming radio hosts etc.

The average fan is not as dumb as people think. The average hockey exec is not as smart as people think.

Don't really think the average fan spends huge chunks of his or her free time pouring over video clips and NHL data and feeding it into Excel spreadsheets for ****s and giggles, though, so to characterize this as a victory for the average fan is a bit disingenuous.

 

[McDrai]

Is this our moneyball guy? Will he take us to the promised land?
Anyways I like this move

 

[McspOiler]

It was really going to be the oilers or someone else that was gonna hire him. Oilers probably got first dibs because he would want to go there. One of the best in analytics especially since he try's to match the math with video and provide a solution. With the access to oilers video and all the new resources this could be great for the oil.

 

[Ol' Jase]

except he used numbers to make his predictions....which is what he does
(the Rangers were the 6th best Corsi team in the league...2nd best in the EC)

again, it isn't perfect...it's just more stats to look at when evaluating a player and teams

And as has been pointed out, and ignored, GF% was a much stronger indicator of success as it corralated to the NHL standings and success this year, with 16 of the top 18 teams in GF% making the playoffs, with the top team, the LA Kings, winning the Cup.

As for the Dellow hire, it can't hurt, but I would think he is going to be more responsible for the accumilation and input of raw data and less on having say in player personnel moves based on this data.

 

[Menzinger]

Fantastic hiring by the team. Dellows work is fantastic - it's a pity that he took down his private site though.

 

[ZJuice]

I approve, this hopefully means the Oilers execs are opening their eyes and seeing that they do not know as much about winning as Kevin Lowe says.

I also like that this average joe got a job in the NHL. My dreams can still come true guys!!