from Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe,

Brian Burke excels at commanding a room. Especially when the Calgary Flames’ president of hockey operations is expounding on a topic of disagreement.

Burke is a traditionalist. Yet he also sits on the honorary executive board of the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. Those two concepts capture Burke’s skepticism and his desire for clarity.

On Friday at the Hynes Convention Center, Burke made his uncertainty of hockey analytics quite clear. But Burke reiterated that if a numbers-based solution arises, he will write a substantial check to claim its ownership.

“If someone comes up with this analysis — which I haven’t seen yet — that makes us better predictors, we’ll buy it,” said Burke during a panel entitled “Hockey Analytics: Out of the Ice Age.” “And we’ll make sure no one else can buy it. We’re all looking for that edge. But it hasn’t materialized, in my mind, yet in hockey as an analytics tool.”

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