Ahead of the Curve

The most visible NHL statistics are goals and assists, of course, along with boxescore staples such shots on goal, a goalie's save percentage, penalty minutes and which players top the team in ice time. Hockey analytics add all sorts of enticing data for fans, such as high-danger scoring chances, puck possession and expected goals values.

But there are hidden layers of hockey stats that motivate NHL general managers and their top lieutenants, including Seattle Kraken GM Ron Francis and assistant GM Ricky Olczyk, to hire the right people for important jobs that most all fans don't see unfold as their favorite team jumps onto the ice for opening puck drop. Some of the hidden numbers:
+ Studies show about half of all NHL players miss at least one game each season because of injuries and teams can lose hundreds of "man games lost" in a season (Columbus led the league with 419 man games lost to injury in the 2019-20 truncated regular season).
+ Approximately 6,000-plus pounds of equipment and gear is moved into the visitors dressing room to prepare an NHL team for a road game, including extra skates, gloves, sticks and more.
+ The top players on each NHL team average about 30 to 40 shifts on ice per game and the team's four lines of forwards and three pairs of defenseman total north of 400 bursts of play in three periods of play.

The data sets help explain why the Kraken announced the hiring of head athletic trainer Mike Booi, head strength and conditioning coach Nate Brookreson, head equipment manager Jeff Camelio and head video analyst Tim Ohashi. Each will lead a staff to be hired in coming months that ranges from how to keep players healthy and in peak condition to making sure all equipment serves every player's potential to breaking down each shift in a video file that can reviewed by coaches and players between periods or even by iPad on the bench during play. There will be lots of preparations and purchases to get both Climate Pledge Arena's home dressing room quarters and the Kraken Training Center at Northgate fully stocked, equipped, designed and customized.
"Today marks another milestone for the Seattle Kraken as we bring on core components of the hockey operations staff who will help to shape our team as we get ready to welcome players in 2021," Kraken general manager Ron Francis said in an official Kraken statement Wednesday. "Each individual brings years of experience and a desire to make us a great hockey franchise. We're thrilled they are joining us on this journey."
"What fans may not fully understand is the people in these roles as just as important as the players to our success," says Olczyk. "I mean no disrespect to the players and their talents. Everyone we hired this week will be in the trenches with the players and coaches every day. They are all committed to maximizing the potential of the players. That's vital. It's so much to advantage they're here now, helping Ron and I to outfit Climate Pledge Arena and the training center, right to smallest but important detail plus get our franchise building blocks in place."
"Hockey represents a smaller roster than many sports," says Brookreson, who joins from North Carolina State's athletic program, where he worked with athletes in Olympic sports (water, court, field). "I look forward to the ability to individualize each player's [strength and conditioning and peak-performance maintenance] program. We will do personalized assessments. I plan to use every resource and metrics at my disposal."

Brookreson has enjoyed success at the collegiate level, including several years training top Olympians at the University of Georgia. He worked his network of strength and conditioning coaches in the ranks of the NCAA, NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL to learn about the prospect of working in hockey for the first time.
"What I heard is hockey players are humble and hard-working across the board," he says. "They are dedicated to their craft and want to get better every way possible."
Olczyk explains the right equipment adjustments from Camelio and his to-be-hired assistant equipment managers serve the maximum potential for each player too: "When players come in from a period of play, some of the players want their gloves to be completely dry [when placed on a custom hockey glove dryer] while others might want the gloves to remain a little wet. Players all prefer their skates to be sharpened a bit differently-and if those blade edges aren't how they need it, that affects their physical play, which in turn goes to their head and mental side of the game."

Ohashi says his "blended role" will be mixing video for Kraken players to improve their games (it is common for players to leave after a game with their individual shifts loaded in a video file on their electronic devices of choice) and putting together scouting reports about upcoming opponents. For his part, he looks forward to the "partnership" of working with director of hockey strategy and research, Alexandra Mandrycky, and her analytics team along with Francis, Olczyk and the scouting staff: "Video is the perfect format to that both the analytics data and scouts' eye test both bring value" to evaluating players.
Digging deeper, it's clear the four hires-plus a contract with former NHL 21-season player and cutting-edge training expert Gary Roberts as a consultant-are on board for reasons beyond those seasons of experience and practical knowledge. Conversations with Booi, Brookreson, Camelio and Ohashi reveal common threads, most particularly the concept of every player and every staffer plays a part in developing a winning culture for the franchise. Booi calls it a "championship culture" which he participated in first-hand when his former employer, the Washington Capitals, won the Stanley Cup in 2018. Ditto for Ohashi, who also joins the Kraken from the D.C. franchise after getting his start with the Caps as a coaching intern for coach Barry Trotz during the 2014-15 NHL season.
"It's about coming to work every day with a positive attitude, checking your ego at the door, nobody is better than anyone else," says Booi, who will work arm-in-arm with medical staff provided by Kraken partner, Virginia Mason Health System to treat players, diagnose injuries, create injury rehab and recovery programs and more.

Camelio arrives after 15 seasons with the Nashville Predators, working before that for championship teams in the East Coast Hockey League and American Hockey League. In 2018, the Predators barely qualified for the playoffs, then swept No. 1 Chicago to start a run that landed the team in the Stanley Cup Final. He is deep into the big and small details of identifying and ordering skate sharpeners, skates, extra skate blades, helmets (and helmet screws and helmet sticks), travel trunks (and everything that goes inside), towels, laundry detergent, razors, gum (eventually to keep it fresh) and all sorts of other items that he doesn't want to overlook .
Camelio says he and his assistants will be focused on the needs of the coaching staff and players. His intention is there will be no star system.
"We will try to treat all players equally," he explains. "Everyone is there for a reason. They have made an NHL roster, which says a lot. We want to be there to support everyone from the fourth-line grinding winger to the No. 1 center. It is an amazing thing to see players come together one-for-all and all-for-one to go a great playoff run."