Dr. Brian Franczak often uses his expertise in statistics and data analysis to help other researchers find the answers they’re looking for. But sometimes the stats tell a story all their own – like player stats in hockey.
The associate professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics sat down with host Kelsie Johnston on a recent episode of the Office of Research Services’ Research Recast(ed) podcast to discuss working with Statistics Honours student and research assistant Stuart Dovey on an analysis of NHL players’ value to their teams.
“I've been interested in learning more about sports analytics for a long time, and Stuart was just a very natural fit,” says Dr. Franczak, who was awarded a Chancellor’s Research Chair position in 2025.
The project started more generally, with the two researchers exploring analytics across multiple sports, integrating them with a computer program to see outputs of real data. When it came time to narrow the topic, their shared interest in hockey made the decision easy.
“We wanted to see if we could build a model to predict how much a player should get paid at the time of their free agency contract,” explains Dr. Franczak. “We categorized players as being overpaid or underpaid based on their current performance, given their dollar value in the contract.”
By using the data this way, he says, general managers would be able to make statistical predictions during their salary negotiations with players. Dr. Franczak says the information can also be used more broadly – instead of just narrowing down a specific dollar value for a starting salary, it could also predict the proportion of the annual salary cap for players.
While Dr. Franczak has plans to expand the research further, the existing work is already paying off. It contributed to Dovey earning an internship with Sport Logic, a company behind many in-game statistics shared during NHL broadcasts and statistics reporting.
“I’ve had lots of students who have gone on to be successful in different areas and get jobs after graduation, but for it to happen in the middle of the project is really cool,” says Dr. Franczak. “There are a lot of opportunities out there – you just have to try for them.”
Watch the full episode
