At the end of February, NHL.com introduced their first official step into the world of analytics.

The website added an “Enhanced” section to their stats drop down menu. The league’s website also renamed a number of statistics that had become popular among bloggers and NHL team management alike: Corsi became Shot Attempts (SAT), Fenwick became Unblocked Shot Attempts (USAT), and PDO became the bulkier SPSv%.

While the NHL seeks to consolidate its control of fancy stats that have surged in popularity across North American sports, fans are left to scramble for resources to help decode the swamps of data now available to analyze players and teams.

As was tweeted at this year’s Sloan Sports Conference:

Getting data used to be the bottle neck, but the new problem is swimming through all that we have – @kirkgoldsberry at #SSAC15 — Sloan Sports Conf. (@SloanSportsConf) February 28, 2015

Swimming Through the Data

I’m not an expert but I love the world of analytics.

Those two facts have helped me to parse some corners of the internet, especially the Twitterverse, in search of some of the best fancy stats starting points.

For the remainder of this article, I’ll do my best to point at and sum up some of the best online spots to dive into analytics. I’ll miss some great work being done, particularly team-specific websites. However, for casual fans just becoming comfortable with analytics, or intermediate hockey data folks who want to go deeper, this incomplete encyclopedia is a place to start.

1. Rob Vollman – Hockey Abstract author and ESPN Insider

Happy (belated) birthday to me! So damn excited to start reading it! @robvollmanNHL . pic.twitter.com/JjZ1pZ6Jvb — Noah (@HabsNewsAndTalk) February 27, 2015

Rob Vollman is a current pillar of the hockey analytics world. His website, HockeyAbstract.com, is the source of links to Vollman’s current articles, his work surrounding team luck and goalie trends, and links to purchase the seminal advanced hockey stats text, “Hockey Abstract.”

Perhaps the greatest feature of Vollman’s site is the player usage charts. These charts can be customized to show which players are “sheltered,” “less sheltered,” “two-way,” and “shutdown” based on their quality of competition or linemates and their zone start percentages.

This is a relatively easy-to-use website with a wealth of advanced data and a must-check for the analytics-enthused.

2. David Johnson’s WOWY and Enhanced Stats Throwbacks

I have just added WOWY tables to the player pages on http://t.co/gi7D0aWz73. Enjoy, and if you see any issues let me know. — David Johnson (@hockeyanalysis) February 22, 2015

At HockeyAnalysis.com and Puckalytics.com, enhanced stats fans can dig through the predecessors of the NHL’s SAT, USAT, SPSv%, etc… in their original forms (as Corsi, Fenwick, PDO, etc…). Both websites continue to feature superior filtering, allowing users to customize the data presented in a way that NHL.com does not provide.

However, the most unique and interesting analytic available on these sites is the WOWY (with or without you) data that site creator David Johnson ( @ hockeyanalysis) has created. Using WOWY, readers can determine which players drive offensive production with each of their linemates and which players drag down the others on their team.

WOWY statistics offer one of the closest views of individual player value that fancy stats have yet to dream up.

3. Salary Cap Sites – in search of the new CapGeek

We all miss capgeek for sure. So we built our own! http://t.co/6itPRuhr6g. "Not as good as Capgeek, but at least it is something"-reviewer — Hockey Buzz Eklund (@Eklund) February 28, 2015

No single website has yet to match the comprehensive, badly-missed CapGeek. However, fans in search of salary and contract data do have a number of choices to help piece together financial data.

Hockeybuzz.com has created a salary cap chart that tracks cap space and payroll by team. The site also includes a listing of current NHL free agents.

Spotrac covers some of the same terrain and has some sortable column features that can prove useful, including team spending by position.

While neither site boasts the functionality of CapGeek, each offers a quick reference point for examining the players that are providing good value for their salaries and which players are not.

*keep an eye open here: War-On-Ice.com is developing a comprehensive salary cap section that includes contract value/length, player comparisons, a buyout calculator and other in-depth contract information. Many features are already operational. Stay tuned.

4. War-On-Ice.com

Also, in general, functionality and accuracy come first and foremost for us. So making things look pretty isn't yet the top priority. — WAR On Ice (@war_on_ice) March 1, 2015

Speaking of War-On-Ice, this site warrants inclusion in any starter’s analytics list. As some other websites do, this site offers regular and enhanced stats for players within or across seasons. Custom data created by a reader generates rich visualizations.

However, War-On-Ice sets itself apart with a couple of unique offerings.

First, game-by-game statistics are available and easily sifted through.

Second, War-On-Ice is an excellent source of advanced goalie stats. Hextally – a shot attempt tracker – provides data on all shot attempts by a player or against a given goalie. WOI also provides sortable listings of adjusted save percentage and relative shooting percentages, making it easy for analytics fans to create accurate goalie comparisons that block out the impact of team defenses.

5. Shot Charts

Uninsured Contract wins GM of the year — Greg Sinclair (@theninjagreg) February 27, 2015

Greg Sinclair (@theninjagreg) has compiled enormously complete shot tracking data at somekindofninja.com. With an easy-to-manipulate form, users can create custom views of shots for any player, home or away, against any goalie, from a variety of distances, in regulation, overtime or the shootout.

These visualizations help analytics-enthusiasts to track where players prefer to shoot from and can help to sort out if a player’s shooting percentage is unlucky – typically good shooter getting lots of shots from the slot but no goals- or lucky (shooter scoring a high number of goals from long distances.

For fans who are just beginning to embrace the world of enhanced stats in the NHL, these five online sources are great places to start examining the new data a little more deeply.

However, this list is totally incomplete.

In Pt. 2, we will continue to explore the online resources available for exploring enhanced stats a little further, including a number of deeper tools being used to evaluate how “valuable” a player is overall.

*Please note: Though different, this online analytics guide does cover some terrain that can be seen in the 2014 Novice’s Guide to NHL Stats done by Romulus’ Apotheosis at TheOilersRig.com. Please give this article a read as well.

What do you think of the NHL’s move to embrace enhanced statistics in hockey? Are analytics are passing fad? Or, will fancy stats only grow to dominate hockey conversations more and more?