On Wednesday, the partners let the media into SAS headquarters for a demonstration ? not of what the Leafs are doing with the technology, but of what they could do with it.
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?Everything? in this case is a lot. SAS says it will be applying analytics to support the Leafs in ?drafting, contract negotiations, on-ice strategy and style of play? ? all areas in which the organization can certainly improve, to varying degrees.
What that means in practical terms is that SAS has been incorporated into a lot of what the Leafs do. The company has a luxury suite at the ACC for every game, and Shanahan and the rest of the management team are provided with live data to tablet computers as games unfold.
Dubas?s team, meanwhile, spends time at the SAS office working with their staff and has also begun tracking and submitting its own data, which can then be manipulated by SAS?s software to produce data visualizations for everyone from GM Dave Nonis on down.
Wednesday?s software demonstration for the media was slick, but everyone was careful to note that the data on screen is not what?s actually being used by the Leafs. That part remains top secret.
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?We?re not really talking so much about what we?re doing, per se,? Dubas added. ?More so showing some insight into how we?re collecting it and the value of having a partner like this.?
