Oilers Vice President of Analytics & Technology Michael Parkatti (8/6/26)

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Oilers NOW with Bob Stauffer 23 min 2 speakers 8 chapters transcribed 1 month ago

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Who is Michael Parkatti and what is his role with the Oilers?

Bob Stauffer 0:00

Hey, it's Bob Stauffer. I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to Oilers Now ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. Welcome back, everybody. Bob Stauffer joining you. And here to tell you, guests on this show receive gift certificates to Japanese Village. It's a true celebration for the senses, quality ingredients, and an unmatched grill side experience. Book your seat at jvedmonton.ca as we head off to the River Creek Resort and Casino Hotline. And welcome to the show. are Wilhock Beef Jerky Oilers, now headliner. Others can try to imitate, but nobody can duplicate the great flavor of Wilhock Beef Jerky, only available in LA, in Leduc, Alberta, 9990 Jasper Avenue. And we welcome back to the show, the first time since he was promoted, the new vice president of analytics and technology, Michael Parcati.

Bob Stauffer 0:52

Hello, Michael, how are you doing? Doing pretty good, Bob. Yeah. So full disclosure, we've known each other for a number of years. We have. And it's a small world. Years ago, did you not interview for a position once when my wife was working at the bank? I'm just trying to think without revealing the details. Yeah, it goes way back, but Kathy, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That was a long, long time ago. All right, look, just here's the deal. You know I always believed in analytics. I also knew I couldn't do it, okay? Like, I had this discussion once with Steve Tamalini about, quote-unquote, the numbers. And does it... When you sit there and see the Carolina Hurricanes with Eric Tulsky, who's known as an analytics type, and Tyler Dello, who...

Bob Stauffer 1:43

was in a pseudo role of yours, but nowhere near as advanced at that stage when he was with the Oilers back in 15, 16. It's kind of wild to think how far the whole analytics community has come in hockey, isn't it?

Michael Parkatti 1:59

Yeah, I mean, I was lucky enough to be a part of that community, not right at the beginning. And there are some people that I read when I was an early fan of the game and learning about it. And obviously some of those people have gone on to get roles within the game as well. But I was sort of part of the, I don't know, 1.2 wave, if you want to call it that, got in fairly early. But I was lucky enough to interact with those people, learn from them. Back then, it was very collegial, and you'd have Eric Tulsky commenting on your blog, critiquing the thing that you just built, and so it's a very humbling experience. So to go from that to where we are today, where the people that you interacted with and participated in this with are winning Stanley Cups, I mean, it's a pretty big deal for sure.

Bob Stauffer 2:49

Is it too simplistic to say that hockey sort of followed suit of moneyball and baseball?

Michael Parkatti 2:57

Well, I think a lot of people, yeah, that book had a massive influence on me. And that came at just the right time. You could argue that baseball's got some advantages over the continuous flow of sports in terms of how you might analyze it. But it's just the same kind of thinking. You're trying to break down a problem, understand the constituent parts of how something happens. So when you got to read those things, you could hear about how other sports are doing it. And, of course, it starts to create ideas and creates a momentum of its own. So, yeah, that book had a massive influence on me. It was one of those ones I think I read it in five hours or something. I couldn't put it down. And one of those life-changing things.

Michael Parkatti 3:40

And obviously the movie's pretty good too.

Bob Stauffer 3:42

Yeah, well, it's funny because I ended up talking to Kevin Lowe about this very topic.

How did hockey analytics evolve from the early “Moneyball” era to today’s internal team models?

Bob Stauffer 3:50

And it was in the early days of Total Sports on what was then Team 1260. Like, we're talking, I don't know, 03, 04, 04, 05, like one of the first two years that I had the show. And is this a way to, because there were some comparables at that time. You know, the Oilers from 2000 to 2004 got the Canadian Assistance Program money, right, from the American teams, which frankly cheesed off Not every American owner was happy that they were cutting $9 million a year and sending it to Edmonton, Calgary, and Ottawa.