Blackhawks expand hockey analytics department with new hirings

LAS VEGAS — Long behind the NHL curve in terms of investment in analytics, the Blackhawks are now catching up — at least in terms of staffing.

The Hawks hired five new employees this summer to work in their Hockey Strategy and Analytics department — increasing the department to six total members — according to an update of their front office directory.

The hirings match up with general manager Kyle Davidson’s messaging last spring, particularly after former Cubs executive Jeff Greenberg was hired as assistant GM. With the Cubs, Greenberg helped build and implement an analytics system called “Ivy” to centralize information gathering and processing, and he was brought to the Hawks to oversee a comparable project.

“We want to get to a point where all of our information...[is] housed in one system, and that’s a big build,” Davidson said in May. “It’s the heartbeat of the operation, so you know what’s going on in every area.”

Notably, two of the Hawks’ five new analytics staffers once directly worked on “Ivy” for the Cubs.

Ryan Kruse, the Hawks’ new director of hockey systems and technology, was previously a “creator and architect” of Ivy during nearly seven years with the Cubs, according to his LinkedIn page. He spent last year as the Los Angeles Kings’ vice president of research and development, building “valuation and projection models.”

Albert Lyu, now the Hawks’ hockey systems architect, also worked in the Cubs’ baseball systems department from 2015 to 2019.

The other three new additions to the Hawks’ analytics department are Chris McCorkle as senior analyst of hockey strategy and Sam Forstner and Mark Weinstein as senior data scientists. Forstner and Weinstein previously worked for the Islanders and Reds, respectively.

Andrew Contis, the Hawks’ manager of hockey analytics, is the one holdover in the department, having held that position since 2015. Mary DeBartolo, previously the department’s only other member, now works in player and alumni relations, per her LinkedIn page.

Elsewhere in hockey operations department, the Hawks’ coaching staff has one new addition: former Rockford video coach Adam Gill is now the Hawks’ assistant video coach beneath Matt Meacham.

Murphy dodges bullets

Connor Murphy’s injury luck hasn’t been favorable in 2022. A brutal-looking concussion resulting from a hit by Senators forward Parker Kelly on March 12 ended his 2021-22 season almost two months early. He also missed most of this season’s training camp with a back injury.

This week, pucks deflecting into his face became a new pattern. It happened to Murphy both during practice Tuesday and again during pregame warmups Thursday against the Golden Knights.

Fortunately, Murphy finally caught some breaks: Everything turned out to be fine — he needed only a few stitches — and he was able to play Wednesday and Thursday.

“The timing is always nice to not miss regular-season games,” he said Wednesday. “Injuries just are frustrating to miss any time. Usually you feel like you have yourself on a plan with the team, and any time you have to sit out days...it’s not fun or easy.”

Even the back injury might’ve been tolerable to play through had it sprung up during the regular season. His absence during camp was partially just precautionary.

“It’s hard to say what would’ve happened day-to-day...or how long the symptoms would’ve been,” he said. “But I do feel like I would’ve played a little bit more.”