Individual Puck Possessions Part II: Speed Bursts and Possession Times within Teams

Abstract

In ice hockey, handling and keeping control of the puck (possession) are valued skills. In this paper we study several metrics of individual player puck possessions from 2023-24 regular season NHL games. These metrics include players’ speed while carrying the puck, and the distribution of puck possession times for players within their team (i.e., does a team have a few players who have a larger share of possession time or are times more equally distributed). Our goal in this paper is to examine and highlight different skills and roles related to puck possession and to design metrics that might be helpful in roster construction and/or creating line combinations.