Quote:
Originally Posted by New Era
Yeah, that's the point. We're being told in this thread that NHL-E says Jankowski is a total bust because his numbers at Providence were not "great." This contrary to information available from professional scouts and even those that saw him at development camp. I'm a big proponent of statistical analysis, but only if the methodology is appropriate. I find the method weak and the data unreliable.
Anti-intellectual? Just the opposite. Just because someone plays around with a spreadsheet and manipulates numbers does not make them an intellectual. An intellectual is someone who exercises critical thinking skills. I do not see any application of critical thinking skills to punching numbers into a spreadsheet and believing that they are a representation of the complex systems that make up a team sport where the majority of the play is considered chaos and unmeasurable to analytics. What about philosophy and psychology, both huge factors in sports today? How are these humanistic factors measured? These are actually the greatest factors that separate players and allow them to succeed at the elite level, yet they aren't considered in the models. Thinking you can replace the experience of a scout, and the understanding of the human experience that a scout brings, with a spreadsheet is anti-intellectual. I wish some of these stats nerds would apply some critical thinking skills to their projects and recognize that much of what makes a hockey player a hockey player is not measurable on spreadsheet or able to be modeled in a lab. Stats tell only half the story, and that's a false equivalency as stats don't tell 1/10th of the story, and much more attention should be paid to qualitative data from people with actual expertise in the subject matter.
Here is how useless NHL-E. This is an analysis released prior to the draft. I guess every team at the draft got it completely wrong. Or maybe they know something about NHL-E that some are afraid to admit here? |
Huh, that list looks pretty good to me. Based solely on statistics, it managed to determine the majority of first round picks. Obviously other factors could move players up or down, but like EVERYONE has been saying, NHL-E isn't supposed to be used as the sole method of scouting, but rather as a complementary tool which can help to aid scouts determine the development of a player.