The Hurricanes use data like this to win. So do you.

The NHL Draft is this week. And if you're anything like us, you'll spend at least part of it glued to a screen, watching names get called and wondering what exactly went into that decision.

Here's the honest answer: a lot of it is data.

Not just stats. It’s deeper than that. The Carolina Hurricanes have quietly become one of the most analytically sophisticated franchises in professional sports. And their GM, Eric Tulsky, is the reason why.

Before he ran a hockey team, Tulsky was a nuclear physics researcher at UNC Chapel Hill. He didn't come up through scouting or player development. He came up through models, regression analyses, and asking uncomfortable questions about what actually predicts winning versus what just looks like it does.

The Hurricanes have made the playoffs in 6 of the last 7 seasons. They do it without chasing big names or throwing money at reputation. They do it by finding players whose contributions the market hasn't priced in yet.

And here's the part that caught our attention: the metrics Tulsky built his system around aren't that different from what HELIOS measures every time you step on the ice.

Speed is a strategy, not a highlight.

One of Tulsky's foundational research findings was about zone entries. Specifically: teams that carry the puck into the offensive zone generate dramatically more scoring chances than teams that dump it in and chase.

That sounds obvious in hindsight. Most things do.

But the key variable behind a successful carry isn't skill or hockey IQ. It's speed. Can you get there before the defense sets up? Can you beat the defender to the line?

HELIOS measures your sprint speed and acceleration on every shift.

Not estimated. Not eyeballed. Measured. That's the same physical variable NHL front offices are building systems around and you've had access to it all season.

Effort is the engine behind possession.

Professional analytics teams obsess over something called Corsi, which is a measure of shot attempt differential that acts as a proxy for puck possession. The team that controls the puck more tends to win more. Simple enough.

But here's what the numbers can't tell you on their own: who's actually driving that possession? Who's winning the battles in the corners, backchecking when the play goes the wrong way, staying engaged when the shift goes sideways?

That's what your Hustle Score measures.

It's the effort underneath the outcome. And it turns out that sustained physical effort, not raw talent, not natural skill,  is what separates players who drive possession from players who just benefit from it.

Carolina spends millions of dollars trying to find players who score high on exactly that quality.

You already know your number.

Your worst month doesn't define you.

This one is our favorite, because it's the thing most people get wrong.

When a player goes through a rough stretch – fewer points, fewer contributions, less visible impact – the instinct is to panic or overhaul. Change something. Fix something. 

But Tulsky's approach asks a different question first: are the physical metrics still there?

If a player's speed is holding, their effort is consistent, and their output is high, but the points aren't coming? That's a cold streak. The underlying engine is fine. The results will follow.

If the physical numbers are also declining? That's a different conversation.

This is the kind of insight that used to be available only to professional front offices. Your HELIOS data gives you the same lens on your own game, across a full season, shift by shift.

You can see whether a tough stretch is noise or signal. That's not a small thing.

Watch the Draft differently this week.

When a name gets called on draft night, there's a story behind it that the broadcast doesn't fully tell. It's not just scouts watching games and trusting their gut. It's analysts running physical profiles, modeling aging curves, stress-testing point totals against the quality of competition.

The players who go early aren't always the ones with the best combine stats. They're the ones whose underlying data told a team something about their skill that the highlights couldn't.

Speed. Effort. Consistency. Those are the variables that matter at the highest level of the game.

You're already tracking all three.

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