Report: Oilers fire stats blogger Tyler Dellow?

[Beukeboom Fan]

Hilarious that teams so fundamentally flawed like the Oilers believe statistical analysis will make a difference.

Call me crazy - but if some teams are using advanced statistics, that impacts how they value players. Even if you are KLowe or MacT and don't beleive that advanced stats are useful, don't you think it's helpful to help understand how other NHL GMs/organizations are valuing NHL players? This would have ZERO impact at the on-ice product, but could still have a significant long term impact for the organization.

Advanced stats aren't going to allow a totally dysfunctional team like the Oilers to turn it around on it's own. I do think though that they could potentially provide additional insight into areas that need improvement, or a better understanding of player usage.

 

[Tekneek]

Don't need analytics to tell you that team sucks.

Tyler was probably making Lowe and MacTavish look bad.

Don't need somebody on payroll for any of this.

 

[Whileee]

Call me crazy - but if some teams are using advanced statistics, that impacts how they value players. Even if you are KLowe or MacT and don't beleive that advanced stats are useful, don't you think it's helpful to help understand how other NHL GMs/organizations are valuing NHL players? This would have ZERO impact at the on-ice product, but could still have a significant long term impact for the organization.

Advanced stats aren't going to allow a totally dysfunctional team like the Oilers to turn it around on it's own. I do think though that they could potentially provide additional insight into areas that need improvement, or a better understanding of player usage.

I sometimes think that there is too much emphasis on analyzing individual players. I think it would be interesting to understand better what creates successful teams in terms of systems and an overall roster matched to those systems.

 

[Whileee]

Don't need analytics to tell you that team sucks.

Tyler was probably making Lowe and MacTavish look bad.

Don't need somebody on payroll for any of this.

Quite right... Dellow seemed quite happy to do it for free.

 

[missinthejets]

Call me crazy - but if some teams are using advanced statistics, that impacts how they value players. Even if you are KLowe or MacT and don't beleive that advanced stats are useful, don't you think it's helpful to help understand how other NHL GMs/organizations are valuing NHL players? This would have ZERO impact at the on-ice product, but could still have a significant long term impact for the organization.

Advanced stats aren't going to allow a totally dysfunctional team like the Oilers to turn it around on it's own. I do think though that they could potentially provide additional insight into areas that need improvement, or a better understanding of player usage.

Even before this guy was hired McTavish expressed some belief in a more analytical approach to things. I think it's just piling on suggesting that the Oilers simply don't believe in advanced stats. The more logical conclusion is that Dellow didn't fit with what they wanted to do. There are lots of people who can look at statistics and draw conclusions, that a recent hire was let go with their failed coach shouldn't be a big deal.

 

[Seedling]

Hilarious that teams so fundamentally flawed like the Oilers believe statistical analysis will make a difference.

I know. It's pretty hilarious that people are getting bent on the firing of Dellow by a bunch of incompetent boobs. Replace the management and rebuild from there. Think about hiring a stats guy waaaaaay down the line once the obvious problems are fixed.

To think Dellow would have added anything to this tire fire is absurd.

 

[PositiveCashFlow]

From our message board...

With respect, I think your argument is fallacious. The Oilers haven't rejected "information", they have apparently kicked Dellow to the curb, while continuing to retain the services of Dan Haight of Darkhorse Analytics.





How does this equate to an "argument against the numbers". After 40 games of Dellow's analysis, perhaps the Oilers came to the conclusion that he didn't know what he was talking about.







So, the Pearson's correlation coefficient between hiring a blogger and getting fired = 1.0.

My sense of it is there's a bit of a "poseur problem" in the "analytics community". People who are good at self-promotion don't necessarily have much substance to them, and in a technical field like analytics it is difficult to continue passing yourself off as something you're not.

Hell, there are people practicing medicine who have never been to university, but they all get exposed eventually.

Isn't that just the way of things?

 

[tempest2i]

As per a writer at the Bleacher Report:

 

[FloydTheBarber]

As per a writer at the Bleacher Report:

So is Eakins. Just relieved of duties.

 

[sayheykid]

Wow, talk about immediate returns.

 

[Voight]

So is Eakins. Just relieved of duties.

This exactly. They probably just told him to go home and collect his paycheques and thats that. With some sort of nondisclosure agreement I'm sure.

Was on Twitter in the past few months? Wanted to see if he used it while actually working for the Oilers but he tweets way to much so its a pain in the ass to look back.

 

[n7]

This exactly. They probably just told him to go home and collect his paycheques and thats that. With some sort of nondisclosure agreement I'm sure.

Was on Twitter in the past few months? Wanted to see if he used it while actually working for the Oilers but he tweets way to much so its a pain in the ass to look back.

He tweets, but ever since he was hired by the Oilers, no tweets about NHL hockey. Or for sure none about the Oilers.
Obviously had to sign some kind of contract he's still clearly under.

 

[Voight]

He tweets, but ever since he was hired by the Oilers, no tweets about NHL hockey. Or for sure none about the Oilers.
Obviously had to sign some kind of contract he's still clearly under.

Yea, thats exactly what I predicted. Probably cant talk about the Oilers.

I'm sure when his contract is up he'll tell it all.

 

[Tad Mikowsky]

Yea, thats exactly what I predicted. Probably cant talk about the Oilers.

I'm sure when his contract is up he'll tell it all.

Of course he will.

He'll either praise himself for turning around the team, or blame how the team didn't use him properly.

 

[Voight]

Of course he will.

He'll either praise himself for turning around the team, or blame how the team didn't use him properly.

Spot on.

 

[pucka lucka]

"Another frontier approach to player and game performance analytics is to gather proprietary data on players. Most teams make use of widely-available data that is provided by their league or by commercial firms that sell player and team data. A few highly analytical teams, however, gather their own proprietary data, or adopt technologies that produce it. There are several examples across sports:"

http://www.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/en_us/doc/whitepaper2/iia-analytics-in-sports-106993.pdf

Then the article provides NON-NHL examples from nba, baseball and nfl on proprietary data.

Blackhawks:

"Models like this are commonplace in baseball, where Sabremetrics have a place in every organization’s front office, and they serve a valuable place in professional football even among viewers now that Fantasy Football is so popular. And while Bowman hints that many NHL teams have access to the same kinds of software and analytics tools, the Blackhawks have added their own “proprietary†toolset to make it more effective.

“Stats are what they are,†Bowman told the Sun Times. “There’s no disputing who scored the goal, or who was on the ice for the goal. That’s fact. What you do with that is sort of the real value. And I think there’s an art to it. The analytics themselves are very objective. But then you have to do something with them and draw conclusions.

“What we do is different,†Bowman added. “I think it’s better, but I guess it’s a matter of opinion. It’s also a competitive advantage. That stuff’s readily available, but what we have is more proprietary. Which is why I’m really trying not to talk about it. I think what we do gives us an advantage over other teams. They might say I’m wrong, but we’re pretty confident that what we have works.â€

http://www.nextgov.com/big-data/2014/05/what-feds-can-learn-chicago-blackhawks-data-analytics/83686/

Leafs:

"
Now the Leafs are going to the next level, announcing on Thursday a partnership with analytics leader SAS to help them with a data-driven approach to judging player performance and creating on-ice strategy.
SAS is more famous for using analytics to help banks and insurance companies make financially sound decisions. Now the company is going to provide the Leafs with real-time analysis of all the stats the NHL provides — and proprietary stats provided by Dubas and the Leafs — to help the team make decisions."


“The video system the team uses is so intricate and interesting,†says Dubas. “It produces a lot of data for the coaching staff and the front office.
“Scoring chances are certainly worth tracking, and certainly interesting. But we’re trying to go beyond much further beyond scoring chances. Scoring chances are more toward the end result of a much longer process.â€
The Leafs will continue to produce their own proprietary data.
"


http://www.thestar.com/sports/leafs/2014/10/16/maple_leafs_make_deal_with_analytics_company_sas.html

Oh geez. I get that you think this somehow makes me wrong. Do you think you are presenting anything I didn't know here? Is this really that hard to understand?

 

[BillDineen]

Oh geez. I get that you think this somehow makes me wrong. Do you think you are presenting anything I didn't know here? Is this really that hard to understand?

You are wrong about the data.

Obviously math is math and new computer algorithm methodologies like the poker one in the news yesterday are described for public consumption and produced in academic journals.

"The best math people? And what would you have them do? They is no more data to work with. There is a reason they use shot data. It's the only thing that happens game to game in a statistically significant volume."

If you add passes from the top of the circles to behind the net in the direction of the goal and add it to all shots, it would be statistically significant and is an example of data bloggers do not have the resources to compile.

 

[Tad Mikowsky]

Oh geez. I get that you think this somehow makes me wrong. Do you think you are presenting anything I didn't know here? Is this really that hard to understand?

It's the demeanour such like this post why I dislike the Advance Stats crowd. It's such an arrogant and condescending tone that makes me really hard for me to root for the Advance Stats to succeed.

Heck, I like the concepts. It's just the people, like Dellow, come off as jerks.

 

[Sarcastic]

It's the demeanour such like this post why I dislike the Advance Stats crowd. It's such an arrogant and condescending tone that makes me really hard for me to root for the Advance Stats to succeed.

Heck, I like the concepts. It's just the people, like Dellow, come off as jerks.

Honestly, this board is really weird. The people who are against using advanced stats don't bother hiding their disdain and pretty much flame the hell out of the concept. Not really uncommon for people who use advanced stats to some extent to be called basement dwellers or nerds for some strange reason.

The people who use it are pretty good with explaining stuff and being thorough with their research. A couple people are bad with their tone and stuff but it's how conversation works. I definitely agree that people can come off poorly when trying to speak about stuff but it goes for both sides.