If you’re an NHL fan trying to follow your favorite prospects in the AHL, you’ve probably run into the problem of being unable to find playing time statistics. The reason for that is simple: The AHL doesn’t publicly publish those numbers.
Do NHL fans deserve to see AHL playing time statistics?
As of now, the hockey world has decided the answer is “no.”
Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images
On Tuesday, The Athletic’s Corey Pronman discussed this issue as part of a larger interview with AHL commissioner David Andrews, who said those statistics are kept secret in the interests of the NHL’s general managers.
“The question comes up at our board meetings and within our competition committee, which is made up of NHL GMs and assistant GMs. And right now, they’re not interested in doing that,” Andrews said of publishing playing time numbers.
The NHL publishes time on ice statistics for every player after every game, but Andrews says that’s for “fan interest” that doesn’t exist in the AHL. At that level, the GMs “are very protective of what they’re doing in player development and they may not want 30 other general managers to have a look at how many minutes each player is playing. They want them to earn their money scouting.”
In other words, the GMs want to balance their competitive desires with the need for transparency as an entertainment entity. In this case, they’ve decided fans don’t care enough about AHL playing time numbers to outweigh the competitive downsides to making them public.
But is that the right decision? Do fans really not care about those numbers?
This potentially seems like another example of the hockey world underestimating how deep some fans want to dig. Remember, this is the same NHL that said in 2016 that it doesn’t think fans need to know about contract details in a hard cap league where teams regularly make moves just because of those numbers.
“I don’t think it’s a resource we need to provide because I’m not sure fans are as focused on what players make as they are about their performance on the ice,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said at the time.
Now, Cap Friendly is one of the most crucial resources on the internet for hockey fans. The same goes for advanced statistics websites like Corsica and Natural Stat Trick that far surpass the usability of what NHL.com offers.
So when the AHL claims that it hides playing time numbers because of the desires of NHL general managers, it’s also operating under the assumption that there’s no audience wanting that information. But over and over, we can point to examples where hardcore fans DID want more information.
And when it comes to evaluating players in the AHL, playing time is really important information. As a Blackhawks fan, I have no idea which young defenseman is getting the most ice time in Rockford unless I watch games with the $350 AHL Live subscription. I can see who scores the points and who dishes the assists, but not who is playing the most minutes.
That’s frustrating, and while it’s undeniably a niche concern for a hardcore fan of a niche sport, it’s another example of the NHL’s apparent disinterest in catering to those hardcore fans if it means making things a little more difficult on the GMs. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.
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