Sutter talks about importance of data, analytics in Flames’ process

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During his post-game press conferences, Calgary Flames head coach Darryl Sutter often references the team’s in-house analytics department and the work it does tracking player performance.

In the summer of 2021, Sutter and his coaching staff met with the department to talk about, among other things, player characteristics they valued. 

Sutter spoke with TSN about how he uses data and analytics, its value to players, and the important things that can’t yet be measured.

The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

TSN: You’ve referenced data a few times in press conferences. What do you look for and how do you sell that to players?

Sutter: “I just think it’s an evolving process. We have new [analytics] staff and we spent a lot of time together this summer trying to connect it more with individual performance, team performance, opponent performance, back-to-back performance, home-road performance, a lot of those things and then to tie it in with management side. To be quite honest, analytics was started not for what’s on the ice, but more for use in negotiations, arbitration, things like that. When it first started, it wasn’t used for a coaching standpoint. The teams that do it properly tie it together. 

We built what we wanted in Los Angeles to help the locker room and players more. I think today’s player wants that information because it’s not a criticism. It shows them the performance based on something a computer’s kicking out about you. So, you can put in what you want, it can help players in so many different ways. It helps them keep a tighter focus, and it takes some of the emotion out of it from a coach-player standpoint, where it’s factual. Instead of your opinion, this is it.