A Year of Promoting The People Who Make the Things I Love: Jan 9–Chris Watkins

In 2022, I am going to spend some time each day promoting someone who makes the things I love. I started this series because I believe that we, myself included, spend so much time on social media dunking on people (however deserved) and not enough time lifting up people deserving of positive attention.

Today I’m writing about the hockey analyst and Twitter provocateur Chris Watkins (Twitter account currently not active, but will likely be back up at some point)

Chris has been a major player in the push to point out the quantity and severity of issues in the NHL using data. While he’s written a great deal about the NHL and hockey in general (ask him what he thinks about pulling the goalie), I wanted to highlight his look at how race affects NHL player development.

The whole article deserves to be read, but here is a quick summary. :

A historical estimate of Black players who have played in the NHL suggests that only about 6–8% of Black players have played primarily at center, a rate similar to that of our estimate of players at the prospect level as well. Thus, to look at the aforementioned disparity in faceoffs another way, unless there are traits specific to the center position that are beyond the grasp of Black players, one must surmise that at some point in the typical development pipeline, Black players are routed from the pivot to less impactful roles on the wing or blueline.

Which begs us to ask, if we assume this re-routing of Black players is true, is there bias in the development and drafting process of players of color, and where else does it exist in the sport of hockey?

My articles are meant to be quick looks at the people who create the things I like, so if you want to read more about Chris, this article by Bill West is a tremendous, comprehensive look at this amazing person I am fortunate to call a friend.