Oilers coach Knoblauch reveals his thoughts on analytics in lineup decisions

Analytics are a hot topic in the hockey world with serious debate on how effective they are, but NHL coaches like Kris Knoblauch of the Edmonton Oilers are using them for lineup decisions.

The Oilers have taken under the leadership of CEO Jeff Jackson to reform their analytics departments, including cutting edge hires like 22 year old math prodigy video coaches.

Coach Knoblauch adopting analytics with Edmonton Oilers

Speaking in a new interview with Preston Hodgkinson of the Daily Hive, Coach Knoblauch revealed that they rely on analytics to colour their choices for the lineup.

They are always giving us information, something that they found out that they feel can help out the coaching staff.

Most of the time, it's the coaching staff asking which lines are really good, what the ideal lineup is, who plays well with who, what types of goals are we giving up, where are we strong. I think there is an unlimited amount of information as a coach you can receive.

- Coach Knoblauch

There can be a flood of information with today's analytics, and surely the private team-based data gets complex too, but the coaching staff do ask for specific inputs from their analytics staffs.

Knoblauch's referring directly to the large mathematical samples that come from stats like expected goals for with specific teammates.

These numbers can show which players have success together, that could have suggested the most recent pairing of Jeff Skinner in the top six at 5 on 5.

Websites like MoneyPuck can accurately track entire lines over different sample sizes- unsurprisingly, the Oilers best line combination this year is McDavid, Draisaitl, and Hyman.

It's interesting to hear an NHL coaches get honest and adopt the analytical wave in hockey, and hopefully, it does lead to consistently better decisions from the staff.