Report – The Oilers Hire Tyler Dellow

It happened, the Oilers have seen the light that is advanced stats and reportedly hired Tyler Dellow. Most of you might know him as @mc79hockey on twitter or have heard him numerous times on Oilers Now with Bob Stauffer. He is one of the interwebs foremost purveyors of fancy stats, and can do nothing but help the Edmonton Oilers brass when it comes to the use of these stats and pro scouting.

Dellow (a former guest on Oilers Rig Radio) isn’t the first hiring of the kind by an NHL team or even the Oilers, Mark Parkatti of Boys on the Bus has done some work for the team in the past. The Leafs hired Kyle Dubas from the Soo Greyhounds he made his name on the fancy stats with the OHL club. The Devils hired a professional poker player and numbers guru in Sunny Mehta. An unnamed NHL team hired Eric Tlusky from SB Nations Outnumbered blog.

These are just some of the recent hirings around the NHL that involve people that are well known for their views on advanced statistics, but there are many more teams that have admitted to using these numbers when it comes to player acquisitions and anaylitics. The Chicago Blackhawks apparently have a whole office dedicated to the subject, Dean Lombardi of the Stanley Cup Champion LA Kings has admitted to using fancy stats. I would say with confidence that it is very unlikely any team in the NHL is not using some form of fancy stats to analyze and scout teams and players alike, except maybe the Flames….LOL Truculence.

While no official title has been announced my guess is Dellow will assist MacTavish in the pro scouting department, an area where up until recently the Oilers haven’t been very strong. Using possession stats to analyze just how a player is when he’s on the ice at 5v5, does he make the players around him better, does he only do well in certain areas or can he play all ends of the ice? These will be important factors for the Oilers who will be looking to get out of their funk and make the playoffs sooner rather than later.

A Note To Advanced Stat Deniers

Stop denying the inevitable. Fancy stats are here to stay, we in the blogosphere have been saying this for some time now and always it starts an argument of how legit these stats are. The hirings I listed above show the direction that this league is going. Possession is key and numbers like plus/minus are a thing of the past. Those of you that don’t believe in them are going to go the way off the dinosaur, the MSM people that don’t catch on to this soon are also going to go the same way. I just wish that Dellow was with the team before the resigning of Luke Gazdic.

There is a great quote I noticed today on Greg Wyshynsky’s article on the hiring over at Yahoo! Sports;

“Oh, there, there. You’re important, OK? I look forward to your Moneyball, to your job in hockey. You’ll be a great story.” – Chris Jones to Tyler Dellow, Nov. 2011

This is Chris Jones from ESPN criticizing Dellows views on statistical analysis, well Chris Jones how do you like them apples?

Stats are here to stay folks, get used to it, get behind them, learn about them because you are about to see them everywhere.

I’ll leave you with this gem of an argument between Dellow and MSM writer Steve Simmons give it a listen bellow.

http://iphone.tsn.ca/tsnpodcasts/Dellow.mp3

Thanks for Reading