The Athletic How Sabres’ scouting department has adapted to analytics, video with Jerry Forton’s help

[Jim Bob]

How Jerry Forton has helped Sabres' scouting department adapt to analytics, video

With technological advancements, the Sabres can paint more complete pictures of players.

theathletic.com

Fairburn with another solid piece on how the Sabres scouting works between the scouts and analytics team.

That’s why Forton doesn’t buy into the idea that analytics, scouts and coaches need to be at odds with one another. He spent a lot of time in rinks and dark video rooms jotting down information by hand. That helps him appreciate what Ventura’s models can accomplish.

“It’s funny to me when I hear about coaches being at odds with analytics because to me whether coaches will admit it or not coaches were at the forefront of analytics,” Forton said. “Twenty-five years ago I sat down after every single game and watched five hours with the coaches and we marked every single scoring chance and who was in on every single scoring chance for and against, hits, turnovers, puck battles, and everything else you could possibly imagine. The only difference now is analytics removes a lot of the biases we probably had when we were marking all of that information. And they’re able to do it quicker on many more games. Coaches have always highly valued that information. Now you just have to trust and make sure you have the right people so you’re getting the proper information but in more volume.”

Forton said now the most important part of his job is making sense of all of that information and making sure it all factors into the Sabres’ decision-making process. There’s more information and it’s coming from more people, and that’s necessary, in Forton’s view:

“The days of just one area scout or a couple of scouts driving things to draft a player or not draft a player are long gone in the league.”

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[Howie Hodge]

I find Jerry's path very interesting, and I am happy he is doing so well.

Jerry was the keeper for my local BDSL Buffalo SC in the early 1980's. Good soccer player.

He was attending some summer courses for Law School about 1983, and couldn't commit to playing.

This left us scrambling for a keeper. Elma goalie Otto Orf was our choice. Otto was going to play Rec soccer that summer, but jumped at the chance to play on a Premier team.

From there, Otto went on to have a long Pro career in the old NPSL, MLS, and a couple other leagues.

So to me; Jerry and Otto are always linked.

Great keepers, great guys; both!

 

[BuffaloGooner]

It’s so refreshing to hear our staff speak so highly of each and understand each other’s roles.

Often you get organizations that say they’re analytically driven but just pretend to be like the Botts era Sabres and Chayka era Coyotes.