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Hockey Abstract Presents... Stat Shot: The Ultimate Guide to Hockey Analytics
Making advanced stats simple, practical, and fun for hockey fans
Advanced stats give hockey’s powerbrokers an edge, and now fans can get in on the action. Stat Shot is a fun and informative guide hockey fans can use to understand and enjoy what analytics says about team building, a player’s junior numbers, measuring faceoff success, recording save percentage, the most one-sided trades in history, and everything you ever wanted to know about shot-based metrics. Acting as an invaluable supplement to traditional analysis, Stat Shot can be used to test the validity of conventional wisdom, and to gain insight into what teams are doing behind the scenes — or maybe what they should be doing.
Whether looking for a reference for leading-edge research and hard-to-find statistical data, or for passionate and engaging storytelling, Stat Shot belongs on every serious hockey fan’s bookshelf.
Advanced stats give hockey’s powerbrokers an edge, and now fans can get in on the action. Stat Shot is a fun and informative guide hockey fans can use to understand and enjoy what analytics says about team building, a player’s junior numbers, measuring faceoff success, recording save percentage, the most one-sided trades in history, and everything you ever wanted to know about shot-based metrics. Acting as an invaluable supplement to traditional analysis, Stat Shot can be used to test the validity of conventional wisdom, and to gain insight into what teams are doing behind the scenes — or maybe what they should be doing.
Whether looking for a reference for leading-edge research and hard-to-find statistical data, or for passionate and engaging storytelling, Stat Shot belongs on every serious hockey fan’s bookshelf.
352 pages, Paperback
Published September 13, 2016
69 people are currently reading
472 people want to read
About the author
Rob Vollman
12 books6 followersRob Vollman is an author, speaker, consultant, and long-time pioneer in the field of hockey analytics. His popular innovations have helped win Stanley Cups and Gold medals, and have shaped the way that teams are built, and the game is covered.
A former member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, Rob was first published in the Fall 2001 issue of the Hockey Research Journal. He has since co-authored all six Hockey Prospectus books, two McKeen's magazines, and has authored five books in his own Bill James-inspired Hockey Abstract series, including the highly popular 2016 book, Stat Shot.
While modern advanced statistical hockey analysis stands on a mountain of complexity, Rob's work is best known for being expressed in clear, focused, and applicable terms, often presented in a humourous and entertaining way. Whether you're arguing about the worst trades in history or which team improved most in the off-season, Rob's objective approach will add clear, cold facts to the discussion in a style that is undeniably engaging—and convincing!
Rob's most popular innovations include player usage charts, quality starts and home-plate save percentage for goaltenders, goals versus salary (GVS) to measure a player's cap value, the team luck index, his history-based projection systems, coaching metrics, the setup passes statistic, and advances in the field of NHL translations and league equivalencies (NHLe) to understand how well players coming from other leagues will perform.
In 2014, Rob organized a grassroots hockey analytics conference in Calgary as a platform for the field's latest innovations, starting a movement that has since spread to eight other cities, including annual events in Ottawa, Rochester, and Vancouver.
Rob's work can be found every week on NHL.com and ESPN Insider, where he has been featured since the 2008-09 season. In all, Rob has written 800 columns for a variety of hockey websites, and has been featured in the Hockey News, the Globe and Mail, the Washington Post, Forbes, and Rolling Stone.
Since his first guest appearances on Nashville Predators radio in the summer of 2011 and throughout the subsequent season, Rob has made over 300 appearances on 60 different radio programs, TV shows and podcasts in 20 NHL cities, including most notably NHL Game Day, Hockey Night in Canada radio, Sportsnet's Hockey Central and 2015 Trade Deadline coverage, Boston Bruins NESN television, TSN's That's Hockey, ESPN's Sportscenter and Hockey Today, CBC Radio, and Wharton Business Radio.
Based in Calgary, Rob is one of the field's most trusted and entertaining voices, and has helped bring what was once a niche hobby into the mainstream.
A former member of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, Rob was first published in the Fall 2001 issue of the Hockey Research Journal. He has since co-authored all six Hockey Prospectus books, two McKeen's magazines, and has authored five books in his own Bill James-inspired Hockey Abstract series, including the highly popular 2016 book, Stat Shot.
While modern advanced statistical hockey analysis stands on a mountain of complexity, Rob's work is best known for being expressed in clear, focused, and applicable terms, often presented in a humourous and entertaining way. Whether you're arguing about the worst trades in history or which team improved most in the off-season, Rob's objective approach will add clear, cold facts to the discussion in a style that is undeniably engaging—and convincing!
Rob's most popular innovations include player usage charts, quality starts and home-plate save percentage for goaltenders, goals versus salary (GVS) to measure a player's cap value, the team luck index, his history-based projection systems, coaching metrics, the setup passes statistic, and advances in the field of NHL translations and league equivalencies (NHLe) to understand how well players coming from other leagues will perform.
In 2014, Rob organized a grassroots hockey analytics conference in Calgary as a platform for the field's latest innovations, starting a movement that has since spread to eight other cities, including annual events in Ottawa, Rochester, and Vancouver.
Rob's work can be found every week on NHL.com and ESPN Insider, where he has been featured since the 2008-09 season. In all, Rob has written 800 columns for a variety of hockey websites, and has been featured in the Hockey News, the Globe and Mail, the Washington Post, Forbes, and Rolling Stone.
Since his first guest appearances on Nashville Predators radio in the summer of 2011 and throughout the subsequent season, Rob has made over 300 appearances on 60 different radio programs, TV shows and podcasts in 20 NHL cities, including most notably NHL Game Day, Hockey Night in Canada radio, Sportsnet's Hockey Central and 2015 Trade Deadline coverage, Boston Bruins NESN television, TSN's That's Hockey, ESPN's Sportscenter and Hockey Today, CBC Radio, and Wharton Business Radio.
Based in Calgary, Rob is one of the field's most trusted and entertaining voices, and has helped bring what was once a niche hobby into the mainstream.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
December 28, 2016
It's very interesting at times (chapters essentially breakdown into small statistical research papers, and some chapters aren't too interesting). But it does get heavy on the numbers. It does what it is supposed to do, but it's a bit heavy for a casual read.
January 24, 2017
Definitely not a light read, but a rewarding one if you're interested at any level if advanced analytics in hockey. It's a bit of an intense read, so complete newbies to the statistics side of hockey, and especially the new metrics, might be a little in over their heads, even with all the explanations provided. It's obviously heavily sourced and contains a ton of examples, charts, graphs and such to back up their findings and to appease math nerds worldwide. Especially fun, although you could argue its accuracy, is the determining of the most lopsided trades of all time.
September 11, 2016
This book is fine for hardcore hockey stat geeks, but for the casual fan, it may not work. I did enjoy the section on the salary cap as I felt it explained that in good detail and easy to understand language. Also, there are many references to earlier books - this is the fourth in a series. If the reader didn't read the others, this one may not make sense. Not a bad book - but because I didn't read the other three, I didn't get as much out of if as others might.
November 10, 2016
Though Stat Shot is ultimately interesting, it shows that it is the third book on analytics to be released by the same team in only 3 years. Though hockey analytics are evolving quickly, they are not evolving fast enough to justify three books of 250+ pages to be written in such little time. Therefore, the chapters' subjects are relatively entertaining, but not so statistically useful.
July 15, 2017
I am completely new to hockey analytics and I was able to understand the topics discussed in this book which was great. I love how they do case studies of past trades and player development so you can see each stat put into practice, and it also gives you new insight into events you have already witnessed.
June 28, 2018
I've loved sports stats my whole life and have loved hockey my whole life, but even I found this book extra dry. I actually couldn't finish it, which is disappointing because I had high hopes for it. It's not bad. The author did a good job. It's just drier than I tend to prefer, love of stats or not. Recommended only for really serious hockey fans or for really serious sports stats lovers...
January 7, 2020
Fun, brisk read about advanced hockey statistics and how best to use them. There can occasionally be an “I’m holier than thou art” vibe with analytics people, but these authors do a really good job explaining their rationale, while also being transparent with where the statistic may come up short. Good introduction to hockey analytics.
November 15, 2018
Dry stuff, but definitely insightful. Advanced stats and their predictive power. Deterministic importance of player age and the arbitrage opportunity of cheap top flight D men not to mention goaltending is a crap shoot.
Probably would be rated better if it were shorter.
Probably would be rated better if it were shorter.
March 6, 2019
The book was awesome. Being not only a big hockey nerd, I'm also a big stat nerd. Very well written and helps you understand the logic and insane amount of work and progress that has been put into hockey analytics. I'm still excited about where else it will lead us!
August 27, 2019
Good comprehensive summary
Well simplified explanations of broadly popular concepts and organisation of the various nomenclature- would have liked to see more details of calculations and back test results
Well simplified explanations of broadly popular concepts and organisation of the various nomenclature- would have liked to see more details of calculations and back test results
Read
August 4, 2020Awesome look into the world of hockey analytics. This was my first attempt at diving into advanced analytics and I will definitely be ordering the other books in the series. I can't wait to learn more about this fascinating underworld that is only known to the nerds who seek it out.
September 19, 2020
Slow burn on this one. Definitely a long read but really a lot of fun and definitely learnt a lot. If only I'd read the chapter on plus/minus a few weeks earlier I could have really been obnoxious in an argument I had.
June 27, 2017
Very stats heavy, doesnt have a ton of story to it. Depending on your interests, some chapters are really good, some chapters are very dry. If you love hockey stats its definitely worth a read.
November 20, 2022
Great book! Definitely gave me another level of appreciation for the sport.
November 26, 2024
geeking out on hockey
More analytic detail than a decade of bill james, but a bit harder to pry apart. WAR is so much easier to understand. Impressive feat though.
More analytic detail than a decade of bill james, but a bit harder to pry apart. WAR is so much easier to understand. Impressive feat though.
November 26, 2020
4.5 really, but I cannot give a half star.
Rob, Tom, and Iain go very in-depth on various topics within the game of hockey. Between faceoffs, goaltending, how to build a team, trades, and many other topics, each of them, quite passionately, explains what they are looking for, how they are getting there, and why they are getting the results that they are getting. Admittedly, this book may be a bit much to handle, particularly for those who are new to the sport or those who are not that great with statistics; however, for any hockey fan that wants to learn more about the inner workings of the game itself, this is a great read!
Rob, Tom, and Iain go very in-depth on various topics within the game of hockey. Between faceoffs, goaltending, how to build a team, trades, and many other topics, each of them, quite passionately, explains what they are looking for, how they are getting there, and why they are getting the results that they are getting. Admittedly, this book may be a bit much to handle, particularly for those who are new to the sport or those who are not that great with statistics; however, for any hockey fan that wants to learn more about the inner workings of the game itself, this is a great read!
September 10, 2016
Wow this book is dry.
Very disappointing. I'm very interested in learning about advance stats. I've gone some ways into understanding things like Corsi, Fenwick and the like... so I was hoping this book would be an accessible and entertaining in depth look into "fancy stats." That's how it bills itself.
Unfortunately it's very dry and not very engaging. Couldn't really finish it.
Very disappointing. I'm very interested in learning about advance stats. I've gone some ways into understanding things like Corsi, Fenwick and the like... so I was hoping this book would be an accessible and entertaining in depth look into "fancy stats." That's how it bills itself.
Unfortunately it's very dry and not very engaging. Couldn't really finish it.
October 27, 2016
An interesting look at advanced stats used in the NHL today. While it was interesting to learn of these new ways to measure team and players performance, I got lost in the numbers. Maybe my heart just wasn't in it- but for the record I'll never be as big a stat nerd as the guys who wrote this book.
November 1, 2016
A highly recommended read for any hockey fan who wants to learn more about analytics and advanced statistics.
May 2, 2017
Very informative about covering specific areas of common player evaluations. Simplified seemingly complex formulas and terms into material that was smooth and easy to absorb. On a side note, I thought the comics featured once every chapter were hysterical!
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews