Hello everyone! It’s time we write something on our new site I suppose. This is going to be a short little entry into what, we hope, will become a long and fruitful aspect of Evolving Hockey for years to come. There are other articles on the site as you have likely seen. These are not new. The articles that are currently live were written by us over the past few years. This isn’t everything we’ve written but that which pertains to many of the models and metrics found on the site. For several years, we wrote more or less regularly at Hockey Graphs. This was an incredibly rewarding opportunity we were given by Garret Hohl and the editors at HG. But after creating EH, adding to the site, and maintaining it for several years, it no longer became feasible for us to write regularly. So we stopped and focused on adding to and improving EH.
It’s been a dream of ours to host articles on EH for some time now. Since the first day we went live back in August 2018 we’ve wanted to have writers, host articles, support good discussion and discourse, etc. Last fall we set out to redesign the website allow for just that. We’ve put a ton of work into the site and will continue to work on improving it. We had previously only been using R’s Shiny package to make EH, but with the new design we are now utilizing the WordPress.org open-source software package (built with PHP and MySQL) for all of the non-stats pages. Basically: anything that doesn’t have charts or tables uses this. It has allowed us the ability to not only host articles but move away from Patreon.com as our user membership and payment processing platform as well.
Now that the new platform/design is in place, we plan to bring on writers and host regular NHL/hockey content. Evolving Hockey, right now, is just Luke and me along with our great social media manager Shawn Ferris. It’s been that way for over a year. Before that it was just the two of us. We’d like to expand that. We have plans to bring on writers and build out a group here that will cover a wide range of topics relating to the NHL and hockey stats in general – the unique, the interesting, or otherwise weird aspects of the game. We’ll be looking for writers over the next few months. Keep an eye out for updates on that!
We have to thank a number of people who helped us along the way. Matt Barlowe has been an endless source of help, advice, and most of all a great friend for years. To be honest I’m not sure we’d even have a website without him. It’s hard to overstate how helpful Shayna Goldman has been during this process. Her insight as a fantastic writer and data person was invaluable. Shawn Ferris, our son, even with his dry wit and cryptic approach to helping us has always been there to support us. Mike Pfeil and Prashanth Iyer, our HG brethren, were vital in testing aspects of the site. Kevin, Alan Wells, Rob Luker, and Ryan Stimson provided assistance for several months as well.
And finally: Thank you to everyone who has supported us, subscribed, and provided feedback. Now that the transition has taken root and the site is running smoothly, it’s time for us to get back to keeping up with the data. If you did not already see, the 2021 contract projections are now live as well! Please let us know if you have any questions or any issues arise through our contact form (found under your profile dropdown). You can subscribe here: https://evolving-hockey.com/login/.
Thank you again! Also sorry about the stock photo, we’re still trying to figure out image licensing.
– Josh & Luke
When I need to learn about stats I don’t need some fancy website I go to the place that never lies: my dang Rolodex!
Back in 1989, David Staples snuck a whole ham sandwich into the Boston Garden. Later that night I had too much press box Pepsi and accidentally stepped on a frog and killed it
please make me a mod so i can ban expected_by_whom. also please make it so i can have a signature. i have a kurt vonnegut quote i need everyone to see whenever i post.
Kurt Vonnegut….give me a break. The only good authors are newsmen who write books called like “47 Islanders Facts” and re-issue them every 3 years to help pay for alimony.
Speaking of which one time outside the Garden in 1994 Larry Brooks and I split a cab with a man from the circus
Son I already have a signature it’s called a byline.
I remember when you could get oysters rockerfeller for $3.75
who is a bigger norris candidate – seth jones or victor hedman? thanks in advance!
that image actually stopped me in my tracks on the homepage hahah