Since the 2021-22 National Hockey League season, the NHL has released their player and puck tracking data known as NHL Edge presented by SAP.
As the description sounds, it tracks a bunch of data using high tech tracking equipment to highlight specific key performance indicators such as shot speed, skating speed, speed bursts, zone time, shot locations, and much more.
It is a useful tool in evaluating team and player performance, it goes without being said that it is not the be-all or end-all but it serves a purpose. At the very least, it is an interesting conversation piece and makes you think and see the game a little differently.
Using the website, I thought it would be interesting to take a deep dive into the Edmonton Oilers stats using the NHL Edge data.
How the Oilers' stars stack up
Connor McDavid
It should come as no surprise that Connor McDavid is one of, if not the fastest player in the entire league. He has been and for the foreseeable future, will continue to be. His fastest recorded speed this season is 39.61 KM/H which is a high for him according to NHL Edge. He also leads the league in skating distance, something he has not done for a full slate since 2022-23.
Leon Draisaitl
Looking at his isolated NHL Edge tracking data, Leon Draisaitl is showing why he is such an impactful player. He is a lethal scorer, ranking in the 97th percentile in goals scored and 90th in shots on goal based on his position. In terms of skating, his speed puts him at 83rd percentile while his speed bursts (32km/h-plus) place him 96th while his distance puts him at 99th percentile. It just shows how impactful he is all over the playing surface.
Evan Bouchard
Despite his struggles, Evan Bouchard has played like one of the NHL's premier offensive defencemen. He ranks in the 99th percentile in total shots on goals amongst defencemen and has spent a lot of minutes in the offensive end, putting him in the 95th percentile. The only statistic he is performing poorly in, is his shooting percentage, which is below league average for a defenceman but is bound to bounce back as it is something he has been well above 50th percentile in for his career.
Interesting team statistics
Skating
The Oilers are the fastest team in the league, a number that is of course largely driven up by McDavid. He accounts for seven of the club's 10 fastest speed bursts this season alone. Switching to skating distance tells a similar story with the club ranking in the top 10 amongst both total distance and average distance.
Shooting
Jake Walman largely drives up the Oilers shot speed category, accounting for three of the top four hardest shots by the club this season. Where things start to get dicey is the team-wide shot location category. They rank sixth in total shots on goal but 16th, 13th, and 12th across the league in high danger, medium danger, and low danger shots.
The goals are where the Oilers fair arguably worse, 13th overall and 24th, 8th, and 19th in high, medium, and low danger. In terms of shooting percentage they rank 17th across all locations and 22nd, 8th, and 23rd across high, medium, and low danger.
Zone time
The zone time screen shows a number of interesting KPIs, like shot attempt differential (Oilers rank 7th) but it also splits the zone time by game situation. Looking at even strength, the Oilers are 16th in offensive zone percentage and 27th in neutral zone percentage and 21st in defensive zone time. This means that the team is spending too much time in the defensive end and surprisingly not enough in the neutral and offensive zones.
What does the data tell us?
Looking at the data in totality, it paints a similar picture to what we already have but with some more added context and expands upon some information. The skating speed is cool but something that could have been guessed given McDavid and a few other burners on the Oilers roster.
There is also the zone time percentages, clearly given their relative standing to the rest of the league in all three zones, the team should be trying harder to spend more time out of their defensive zone. Doing this would as a result improve their time in the neutral or offensive zone by default. This is not ground breaking analysis by any stretch but it represents an issue that may be hurting the Oilers and their ability to bury the puck as well as keep it out of their own goal.
Speaking to the Oilers production, it is clear that the team needs to find a way to get more shots from high danger areas with them hovering around the middle of the pack in terms of shots on goal from there but so low in goals from there. That also speaks to the fact that the Oilers are in the midst of a scoring slump with their shooting percentage ranking amongst the worst in the NHL.
Hopefully, the Oilers are able to turn their game around this season and make thir way into a third straight Stanley Cup Finals berth.