HALO conference shows continued growth in advanced hockey analytics

DENVER -- The Colorado Avalanche held the largest hockey analytics event hosted by an NHL team at Ball Arena on Tuesday, and the momentum was on full display with teams around the League and their bright hockey minds uniting for the greater good of advanced stats.

The Hockey Analytics League Operations (HALO) meetings and conference welcomed 300 people from around North America and elsewhere to discuss some of the most innovative developments and cutting-edge data providers being utilized on a daily basis by NHL teams. Among the attendees were nearly 90 hockey analytics employees representing nearly every team in the League, prominent media members from across North America and up-and-coming analysts looking to build new relationships and share ideas in an effort to get closer to the game than ever before.

"It really hit me how far we've come in this movement," said Arik Parnass, Avalanche director of analytics. "It makes me proud to see the growth from when I started to now teams have these bigger staffs doing so much with great data that we never had before. To me, this event was really a celebration of that progress."

Parnass organized the HALO conference with the support of Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland. Parnass was hired in 2016 to spearhead advanced analytics for Colorado, which went on to win the Stanley Cup in 2022 and is atop the NHL standings this season.

The event included multiple panel discussions, a live podcast interview with Avalanche coach Jared Bednar, a "Hackathon" competition with aspiring data scientists, and a data provider marketplace. The winner of the Hackathon was Elliott Kervin, a native of Orillia, Ontario who attends the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, for his presentation on redefining player value using artificial intelligence.

One of the panels featured some of the top executives for the Colorado professional sports teams, including MacFarland, Denver Nuggets (NBA) executive vice president of basketball operations Ben Tenzer and Colorado Rapids (MLS) president Padraig Smith. MacFarland, Avalanche president of hockey operations Joe Sakic and Bednar use advanced metrics as a tool for both coaching and management, helping the team become a perennial Stanley Cup contender.

The Avalanche have factored in analytics heavily in retooling their roster with a barrage of trades in recent seasons, acquiring key players like goalies Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood, forwards Martin Necas and Brock Nelson, last season and bringing back forward Nazem Kadri, a member of their 2022 championship team, prior to the NHL Trade Deadline this season.

"We like to use (analytics) as a look under the hood, whether it's after a game or player acquisitions," MacFarland said. "When our analytics team and scouts agree, that's pretty good. But I like it when they don't agree. It allows us to peel the layers of the onion back and go deeper, all in an effort to help us make better decisions."

Bednar said he's in close touch with the Avalanche's analytics department prior to, during and after games. Bednar said he and his coaching staff closely monitor analytical trends and League rankings for the team in various metrics and constantly tweak their playing style to continue to feature elite talents like forward Nathan MacKinnon and defenseman Cale Makar, but also to fine-tune other areas of their play.

"It's ever-changing … and it’s a copycat League too," Bednar said during the live episode of "The Hockey PDOcast" with Dimitri Filipovic and Thomas Drance recorded at the HALO conference. "It comes from our (coaching) staff, our analytics department and also the players. It's an all-in atmosphere there. Everyone is able to come in and share ideas, and we take them all seriously."

Bednar, in his 10th season as Avalanche coach, said he always has been really impressed by Colorado's management team, which has built strong relationships with its players and is comfortable sharing data and information with them, and vice versa.

Bednar added that "emotions tend to be high" following a game, whether his team wins or loses, so he usually does not go into the Avalanche's locker room afterward.

"If I want to send a message right then and there, I do it," he said. "But to me, that time is for the players. I like to take my time, go through my stuff. I have our analytics, our game tape, so when I do my reviews, it's the next day."

Bednar said he thinks about and is briefed on specific advanced metrics, including but not limited to his team's forechecking, zone entries, zone time and rush defense, before selecting a portion of that data and eventually relaying 50 percent of his takeaways to the team.

"I'm already critiquing that game and changing things in between periods," Bednar said. "I do go in (the locker room) then to give them information. As fast as I can get it, they get it, if it's on the bench, in the intermissions and that. But once the game's over, it's too late."

In the panels and "Hackathon" presentations at the HALO conference, the analysts also explored the next steps in hockey data, including the desire to further analyze passing and the circumstances leading up to events that take place on the ice. Other talking points included optimizing analytics for incoming NHL Draft prospects from different leagues and countries, exploring further AI development, and comparing advancements between teams in other major sports leagues while prioritizing fan engagement along the way.

Parnass shares the same mindset for the Avalanche's analytics department as the technology and data-gathering landscapes continue to evolve.

"I've been super lucky to be able to work with Chris, Joe and Jared," Parnass said. " They're open-minded people and embraced (analytics) from Day 1," Parnass said. "It's come a long way, and we're still striving all the time to get better with what we do."