Canadiens Finally Appoint Director Of Hockey Analytics

Kent Hughes and the rest of the Montreal Canadiens brass continue their work to transition the team into the 21st century. After decades of absence, the team will finally have a Hockey Analytics Department and a Director has been appointed.

Christopher Boucher, who had spent the last two seasons as a scout for the San Jose Sharks, will be the Canadiens’ first Director of Hockey Analytics in franchise history. His analytics experience comes from his time working for Sportlogiq, a Montreal-based company that specializes in hockey, football and soccer analytics.

Having an expert, let alone a department, in statistics is a must in modern day sports whether we like it or not. Some people don’t believe in such statistics that was originally popularized with baseball. Others, like our own Sebastian High for example, swear by these statistics.

I sit somewhere in the middle. While I appreciate having a ton of statistics available in front of me, a player’s heart will never be justified by his Corsi %. Nor will a Fenwick tell you if a player will elevate his game in a tie game in Game 7.

That being said, it is part of the game and it has shown certain measures of success. The Chicago Blackhawks owe their three Stanley Cups won in 2010, ’13 and ’15 in large part to their analytics department. Same can be said about the Tampa Bay Lightning who are said to have one of the largest budgets in the league dedicated to their statistical department.

Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes have both committed upon their hiring to update their various hockey departments. Along with analytics, the Canadiens have created educational programs via France-Margaret Belanger and have already begun work in overhauling their training, fitness and nutritional programs.

The additions of Vincent Lecavalier in a Special Advisor To Hockey Operations, Nick Bobrov as Co-Director of Amateur Scouting and Adam Nicholas as Director of Hockey Development are important steps in building a team within the team. The promotion of John Sedgwick as Assistant General Manager was also an important move as not only will he continue the management of the salary cap, but he is also primarily responsible to the smooth running of the Laval Rockets.

The hiring of veteran sports journalist Chantal Machabée was the first of important moves made in order to not only make the lives of the players easier, but to have a deeper connection with the fans as a whole.

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