The Prince George Spruce Kings have hired a rocket scientist they hope will give them an extra boost this B.C. Hockey League season.
Quinn Mulligan is a rocket scientist by trade and an X's and O's guy by night.
Mulligan, who has an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering and is currently completing his research-based graduate thesis in aeronautics, was hired last month as the Kings new director of analytics.
Analytics, in laymen's terms, are advanced statistics - in-depth tracking of the Spruce Kings plays and those of their opponents, including shots, face-offs, blocked shots and scoring chances.
"Quinn is providing an area of finely-tuned stats that will hopefully give us an advantage," said Spruce Kings general manager Mike Hawes. "Anytime you can get a leg up on the opponent you have to take advantage of it. He's done an intelligent job for us."
Mulligan, 25, has developed a web-based software program that he's using to perform his research and analysis while reviewing the Kings games on video or live at the rink when the team competes in the Lower Mainland against their Mainland Division opponents.
For Mulligan, the charting all began in his hometown of Port Alberni as a goalie in the minor hockey association of the Vancouver Island community.
"I did the team's website and as a goalie I had a good view of the ice when I played," Mulligan said recently from his home in Vancouver. "When I was the backup, I had a sketch of the arena and tracked shots, misses, and saves and shot quality."
While he admits he was a "suitcase guy," a journeyman goalie who played a little bit in the junior B ranks with a few Vancouver Island teams and Salmon Arm as a teenager, he excelled more in the classroom.
He received an academic scholarship to Carleton University in Ottawa and earned a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering degree.
As a co-op student, Mulligan worked on the unmanned air vehicle team at MDA in Vancouver, working with unmanned aerial vehicles in the Canadian and Australian air forces. He completed his undergrad thesis at the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) in Pasadena, and is now wrapping up his master's degree in aeronautics at UBC.
"I have a knack for coding and it really has nothing to do with my degree," said Mulligan. "I was going to school in 1996 in Williams Lake and the Internet had just come on board. I was doing really basic websites and I was really young when I started doing them."
As a minor hockey player, Mulligan was teammates with Kings assistant coach Colton Buffie and one thing led to another and Mulligan came on board as director of analytics as part of the hockey operations staff.
"I've developed some software... the BCHL doesn't track much so we need to track it ourselves," said Mulligan. "The software efficiently allows us to watch the [Spruce Kings] games and keep track of everything in the game. The software streamlines it all and is written so it anticipates what the next play will be. It's a pretty nice piece of software.
"The Prince George guys can log into it and look at whatever they want and we can track all the other teams in the league."
Mulligan adds the software takes simple factors into account such as what affects scoring chances and what affects winning percentages.
The research, executed by Mulligan's friend, research analyst Drake Poulsen, is split into repeatable plays - what can be controlled in a game - and other plays that can't be controlled, such as a lucky bounce or play.
"It seems like 40 per cent of the game can be controlled as it's repeated and players can take advantage of that," said Mulligan. "If a team takes advantage of that, then that will increase the winning percentage."
While it's early in the BCHL season - the Kings have played 18 games with a 10-6-0-2 record and are first in their division - Hawes knows Mulligan's work so far has been beneficial to the team.
"Absolutely it's helped us," said Hawes. "The stats can show us how we move into the offensive zone entry after a defensive zone exit and how we're able to get into the offensive zone.
"Other teams have statisticians, but this is more in-depth analytics. We're really happy with it and it gives us a bit of an advantage. He can break down archived footage of how an opponent is going to be playing and point out areas where we can try to exploit them.
"We saw him [Mulligan] last week in Langley [a 5-2 loss against the Rivermen] where he tracked 30 to 40 stats for us and was live on the computer. It was interesting to see him use it live in real-time."
Mulligan, who remains a big hockey fan and is doing some consulting work with a wind power company in the U.S. on the side, said the analytics software is still in its infancy and has really never been done before at the junior hockey level.
"I'm part of the Spruce Kings team and I want Prince George to benefit from this," he said. "I'm doing this to help out the Kings, it's been a lot of fun."
The type of stats Mulligan keeps are face-offs, size of the ice, shots, quality of shots, shots in the red zone and outside that area.
Kings opponents have taken note.
"This is ground-breaking in the league," said Hawes. "Other GMs and coaches have called me and shown an interest in what we're doing. I fully anticipate seeing more teams in the league use it."
