Mining NHL Draft Data and A New Value Pick Chart

For every hockey player, getting drafted to the NHL is a dream come true, but the real goal is to reach 160 games played (GP). A simple model is fit to NHL draft years 1998 to 2009 with an aim at predicting the proportion of players who will play 1 or 160 games. For individual players drafted between 1998 and 2011, predictive models (GLM, Neural Network, SVM and LOESS) are created to predict a player's career GP, then combined to create a voting model to decide whether or not a player will reach 160 GP. Players drafted from 1998 to 2008 were analysed using non-linear multi-variate model, with a modified weighted least squares, to predict a player's Time-On-Ice (TOI) for their first seven seasons. The results were analysed for positional advantage, then converted to value pick charts (used by teams when choosing a draft pick or considering a trade).