Official Sam Ventura Hired as VP of Hockey Strategy and Research

[Brawndo]

 

 

Live Look @LGR4GM right now 

Edited July 5, 2021 by Brawndo

[Brawndo]

 

 

[Gatorman0519]

Interesting. Maybe we are finally getting serious on the precipice of the longest playoff drought in hockey history. 

[mjd1001]

The guy might be great, and at this point just bringing in anyone with some kind of talent is better than the vast wasteland that the Sabres have had just about everywhere recently, but another Penguins guy?

I don't get as upset as many on here, but at some point...are the best people to hire REALLY just from Pittsburgh?  You wonder if they are doing a thorough interview process to fill these roles...or are just bringing in people they are comfortable with.

[darksabre]

Wouldn't it be something if the Sabres gutting everything down to the studs and then building it back up actually worked? 

[woods-racer]

Some how, some way Terry made this happen. He's meddling, again.😏

 

His bio is quite impressive. Hope he does well.

[Zamboni]

Anti analytic “eye test only”  fans be like … 

 

😂

Edited July 5, 2021 by Zamboni

[woods-racer]

1 minute ago, darksabre said:

Wouldn't it be something if the Sabres gutting everything down to the studs and then building it back up actually worked? 

Is trading Jack and Sam *gutting to the studs*? If it is then it has a much greater probability of success if the farm teams are fully stocked before the gutting, which I don't believe they are. 

[Thorner]

[Flashsabre]

4 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

The guy might be great, and at this point just bringing in anyone with some kind of talent is better than the vast wasteland that the Sabres have had just about everywhere recently, but another Penguins guy?

I don't get as upset as many on here, but at some point...are the best people to hire REALLY just from Pittsburgh?  You wonder if they are doing a thorough interview process to fill these roles...or are just bringing in people they are comfortable with.

Where do you think Karmanos came from? He worked with him in Pitt, thought very highly of him, made sure to bring him on board. If the two of them have a great relationship then it’ll make things work much more smoothly.

[nfreeman]

Interesting.  He has a PhD in stats from Carnegie Mellon, which is an excellent university, and he co-founded War on Ice, which is a well-regarded hockey analytics site.  He was also involved in salary-cap planning and the planning/interaction between the Pens and their AHL team.

This seems like a pretty senior-level hire.

Good for KA, and good for the Sabres for being able to bring in a guy like this.

[Trettioåtta]

Was Nightingale promoted? I feel he has had about 7 different job titles this year

[NAF]

6 minutes ago, mjd1001 said:

The guy might be great, and at this point just bringing in anyone with some kind of talent is better than the vast wasteland that the Sabres have had just about everywhere recently, but another Penguins guy?

I don't get as upset as many on here, but at some point...are the best people to hire REALLY just from Pittsburgh?  You wonder if they are doing a thorough interview process to fill these roles...or are just bringing in people they are comfortable with.

A fair point, especially considering failures with Bylsma and Botterill.

 

I do however, like what I'm reading from this article: https://www.nhl.com/penguins/news/penguins-hire-sam-ventura-as-director-of-hockey-research/c-289961770

"...Ventura previously co-founded the hockey analytics website war-on-ice.com before joining the Penguins in a part-time role. In addition to his work with the Pens, Ventura spent two years as a visiting assistant professor of statistics at Carnegie Mellon University from 2015-17. Ventura has earned a Bachelor's (2010; Computational Finance and Statistics), a Masters of Science (2011; Statistics) and PhD (2015; Statistics) degrees from Carnegie Mellon."

He definitely seems like a smart guy.

[dudacek]

Interesting that his already moving on after getting promoted last fall.

Clearly a Karmanos guy in Burke/Hextall world.

Seems to be highly qualified, but that must be wrong because nobody good ever wants to come to Buffalo.

[dudacek]

Just now, Trettioåtta said:

Was Nightingale promoted? I feel he has had about 7 different job titles this year

No. He’s strictly assistant scouting director now, although I imagine that includes analytics.
This guy is now our chief analytics guru.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

21 minutes ago, Zamboni said:

Anti analytic “eye test only”  fans be like … 

 

😂

Never heard of this guy.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

17 minutes ago, NAF said:

A fair point, especially considering failures with Bylsma and Botterill.

 

I do however, like what I'm reading from this article: https://www.nhl.com/penguins/news/penguins-hire-sam-ventura-as-director-of-hockey-research/c-289961770

"...Ventura previously co-founded the hockey analytics website war-on-ice.com before joining the Penguins in a part-time role. In addition to his work with the Pens, Ventura spent two years as a visiting assistant professor of statistics at Carnegie Mellon University from 2015-17. Ventura has earned a Bachelor's (2010; Computational Finance and Statistics), a Masters of Science (2011; Statistics) and PhD (2015; Statistics) degrees from Carnegie Mellon."

He definitely seems like a smart guy.

Masters and Ph.D in Stastics.  Never knew there was such things.

Bet he's the life of the party.

[darksabre]

30 minutes ago, woods-racer said:

Is trading Jack and Sam *gutting to the studs*? If it is then it has a much greater probability of success if the farm teams are fully stocked before the gutting, which I don't believe they are. 

I'm only talking organizationally, not players. 

[Brawndo]

 

[bunomatic]

So do we call him Sam Spade or Ace Ventura ?

[LGR4GM]

1 hour ago, Brawndo said:

 

 

"It was at that moment Ventura received an email from former Penguins assistant general manager Jason Karmanos, asking if they could talk. Karmanos had been following along with Ventura's exploits in the hockey analytics world, and had heard nothing but positive things, so he decided to reach out."

[Thorner]

9 minutes ago, bunomatic said:

So do we call him Sam Spade or Ace Ventura ?

Ventura on the case with Finkle and Einhorn headed out of town?

I've seen this movie before 

[Flashsabre]

I wonder if this hire has been in the pipeline for a while and why they haven’t talked to draft prospects yet. They are talking to Eklund (Swedish winger not rumor BSer😀) on Wednesday so probably the others as well. Maybe it is just timing or maybe they want Ventura in the room.

[woods-racer]

52 minutes ago, darksabre said:

I'm only talking organizationally, not players. 

Gotcha.

It's passing the sniff test that it may be one of the better run Sabres teams we have seen since the *old days* of Darcy and company. A good person brings in a good person, who reaches out to another good person. The timing on this hire is very significant also.

[LGR4GM]