20 Comments

Honestly, I can't say enough how much I like the approach ownership and GMBA are taking. Revamping and rethinking the front office and staff from the ground up, breaking down our roster and regaining cap space and draft picks, and planning to capitalize when the two areas converge for a more successful attempt at a rebuild.

I get the frustration from some fans in seeing our team lose key pieces and play the rebuild game, but looking at the moves being made, I feel like this is the first time we're seeing a legitimate "everything" rebuild and not a stop-gap "let's try this again" rebuild.

Expand full comment

I’ve loved their approach too, investing in the off-ice analytics, goaltending department, as well as business and ticketing hires. Armstrong has done a fantastic job with the little changes he could make with the roster as well, and I trust he will continue making decisions for the team based on sound reasoning and data-driven insights. Looking forward to seeing some fruits of their labour.

Expand full comment

Hi Brad - I totally agree with you here. "Rebuilds" are frustrating, especially since it seems like the Coyotes have been in one since 2014. I actually see light at the end of the tunnel here with this management team's approach.

Expand full comment
Jan 26, 2021Liked by Craig Morgan

No prospects, no draft picks, no salary space and lots of bad long term contracts. Everything else is rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic. Armstrong can't even begin to rebuild this mess till they start getting picks in 2022. Chayka.... Obviously a huge scumbag after reading news out of Toronto that Bettman banned him till 2021.

Expand full comment
author

This whole season feels like prolonged limbo.

Expand full comment
Jan 26, 2021Liked by Craig Morgan

Only plan Armstrong can have is trying to have this team competitive when 34 becomes a ufa.

Expand full comment
author

I have thought about that a lot.

Expand full comment
Jan 26, 2021Liked by Craig Morgan

Only way possible to do so. With no picks you can't build your prospect pool. They aren't making the top 4 and they can't be in the lottery. They're f'd. And people calling to fire RT are clueless. Why pay a coach to not coach this mess that nobody could win with???

Expand full comment

Craig - Can you contrast GMBA's approach with the sort of stat analysis that Chayka (and his former company Stathletes) did? Is there a difference?

Expand full comment

My cynical response is that GMBA's sole purpose is not to make himself look like the smartest guy in the room. Armstrong, so far, seems like a massive upgrade over The Weasel.

Expand full comment

This would be one of my questions, as well. Not in a pessimistic sense, more out of curiosity. Different companies, different GMs, different owners, so...not the same equation...but still curious how this compares to what Chayka was - theoretically - doing.

Expand full comment

Seconding this, though I'm guessing it will be difficult since I've read that a lot of what those analytics companies do is proprietary.

Expand full comment

Awesome article! This kind of thing is very interesting. Also, I have to say that the last three paragraphs make me very happy and give me hope for this organization and front office.

Expand full comment

Thank goodness they've added Stempniak, finally there is someone in the org that knows that compete is a verb and competitiveness is the noun. 😁

Expand full comment

But will they be efforting the analysis?

Expand full comment

Great article! I like what I've been seeing from the re structures.

Expand full comment

Fascinating article, thanks Craig.

Reading through the quotes, I'd love to know if any teams consider social science as a piece of the puzzle in their analytics department. From what limited knowledge I have, their data-driven approach seems to come from data collected on the ice or in the gym rather than from talking to players and scientifically evaluating their language and behaviours. Often, questions of personality seem left to the interpretation of the coach, who themselves have unconscious bias and intrinsic flaws that affect objectivity.

The advantage of fields such as behavioural psychology is not just that they can go some way towards answering questions like "what drives guys", but that desirable behaviours can be augmented or influenced using a nudge here and there. Unfortunately, it's far more complex than simply saying "look at Garland and copy what he does".

Expand full comment

Really good job of describing what the various job roles are and how the interact. That was my big question when all of these new hires/positions were announced.

Expand full comment

Great article Craig.

Expand full comment

Sounds like a great approach.

Expand full comment