This morning Bob McKenzie broke the news that the Oilers (most likely) have hired Tyler Dellow, best known on the Oilogosphere as MC79Hockey. Dellow, a long time Oiler blogger, was a pioneer in the conversation of Analytics in the sport. As of late last night his website was taken down and he has been noticeably absent from social media since Bob broke the news.
The hiring by the Oilers is yet another indication that the Oilers are doing everything in their power to fill the room with intelligent people, and that those people are banging the drum of analytics. It is without question in my mind that someone in the club with a mind for “fancy stats… has found the ear of the key decision makers, now they’ve gone out and acquired one of its most vocal proponents in the sport.
To borrow a comment from fellow HockeyBuzz writer Travis Yost, the things that Dellow was doing in the past 3 years was well above what you would expect from a hobbyist. I wish the site was up so I could link to them, but the last big one in particular was probably his work identifying strategy changes with faceoffs that resulted in more won draws but less offensive effectiveness. Was it that work that finally made it imperative for the Oilers to sign him? Only they can tell you that.
I think it’s fair to say that the Oilers didn’t hire a writer who happened to push analytics, they hired an analytics guy who also happened to write. His website wasn’t meant for those looking for light reads. It was an academic journal of hockey and I think it got easier to read as he developed as a writer, but then again it might have just gotten easier to read because we were forced to learn the lingo.
There’s little doubt that a decade ago there were only a handful of people talking about things like Corsi or zone starts and now it has infiltrated the mainstream. But it isn’t just the mainstream media that caught on, it was the teams themselves. This has been dubbed by a few as the summer of analytics in hockey. NHL clubs are scooping up notable bloggers like Eric Tulsky and Tyler Dellow to fill evaluative positions on their teams and there’s absolutely no reason they shouldn’t be doing that. There will always be ex-players to fill the scouting ranks. Guys who know the game because they played at high levels and see things that laymen do not, but their existence doesn’t mean that there couldn’t also be places for those with inventive minds and critical thought.
And the Oilers have hired someone who isn’t afraid to be critical. Certainly very few are capable of cutting through BS and letting you know your idea/wording wasn’t up to par the way the Oilers’ new analytics man can. The most consistent complaint heard about Dellow on the internet is that he would mock those who debated with him. He didn’t do that to everyone who challenged his ideas, just to those that did it without having a leg to stand on. And sometimes you just had to have a sense of humour about being carved up.
The Oilers have the financial wherewithal to add intelligent hockey people from all walks of life. This is a move they should be making. Just as they added Ramsay and Nicholson, so too they added Dellow. It’s excellent news for him and I wish him all the best. It’s unfortunate for me because I liked the open access I had to someone who was pushing the river of thought about the game, but I suppose if he helps the Oilers I’ll be OK with it.
UPDATE
The Oilers officially announced Dellow as a Consultant to Hockey Ops
The #Oilers have hired Tyler Dellow (@mc79hockey) to consult with Hockey Operations.
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) August 5, 2014Follow me on Twitter @Archaeologuy