The Los Angeles Kings continue to try to improve as the franchise went out and hired long-time analyst Rob Vollman to be the team’s Senior Hockey Analyst, according to TSN’s Bob McKenzie. The analyst has been working in that field for more than 20 years, long before it became popular.
“Rob is a highly regarded pioneer in the analytics industry,” Kings vice president of hockey operations and legal affairs Jeff Solomon told The Athletic’s Lisa Dillman on Saturday. “He’s very creative and has a broad base of experience. I expect him to enhance our analytics platforms and to greatly contribute to Hockey Ops processes.”
Vollman, who has spent much of his life to hockey analytics, has written five books in his Hockey Abstract series and co-written a book, Stat Shots, in 2016. Over the years, Vollman had spent much of his time towards analytics whether it was through public speaking, his work on websites like Hockey Analytics as well as his books.
With more and more teams investing in analytics, the Kings hope by hiring Vollman, they can jump up near the top in the field. Several teams have been known to have significantly invested in analytics in the past few years, including the Carolina Hurricanes, Florida Panthers, Washington Capitals, New Jersey Devils and Toronto Maple Leafs.