Player and puck tracking in the National Hockey League, which is scheduled to arrive for the 2019-20 season, has a few objectives. It will create new and more accurate statistics. It will provide unprecedented ways for teams and players to evaluate performances. It will add hundreds of new wagering options to the sportsbooks, from betting on shot location to the speed of players, in an effort to attract new fans through legalized gambling.
Mathieu Schneider, NHLPA special assistant to the executive director, also sees it as a narrative device. "It will help tell stories of the great athletes that we have in the NHL," he said during January's tracking test at the NHL All-Star Game in San Jose, California.