SAN JOSE -- The NHL plans to deploy Puck and Player Tracking technology for games next season, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said Friday.
The technology, to be tested during the 2019 SAP NHL All-Star Skills on Friday (9 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS) and the 2019 Honda NHL All-Star Game on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, SN, TVAS), tracks every movement of the puck and each team's players during a game. The system will have the ability to track the players at 200 times per second.
"The Puck and Player Tracking system can track pucks at a rate of 2,000 times per second in real-time with inch-level accuracy," Commissioner Bettman said. "We'll instantaneously detect passes, shots, and positioning precisely. It will be equally accurate in tracking players -- their movement, speed, time on ice -- you name it.
"Being on the forefront of innovation is good for our game, and most especially our fans."
The NHL Puck and Player tracking technology will include 14-16 antennae installed in the arena rafters; four cameras to support the tracking functionality; one sensor placed on the shoulder pads of every player on each team; and 40 pucks manufactured with a sensor inside for each game. The technology is to be deployed in all 31 NHL arenas at some point during the 2019-20 season.
"As a league, we have made significant investments to create new technology that quite literally didn't exist," Commissioner Bettman said, "We think many of our fans -- especially the innovation generations - - millennials and Gen Z -- are going to love this new frontier.
"These kinds of advancements are only possible with great partners, like the Fraunhofer Institute and their subsidiary, jogmo world. They've developed a system that met our standards not only for the puck and player tracking technology but also the engineering and manufacturing associated with this complex endeavor."
Testing for the technology was done at the 2015 NHL All-Star Game, in Columbus, Ohio, the World Cup of Hockey 2016 and the 2018 NHL All-Star Game in Tampa, Florida, said Commissioner Bettman, who added the most significant step in the process was tracking players and pucks during two regular-season games in Las Vegas, during the Consumer Electronics Show.
"We know our players are fast, their passes are precise, and their shots are hard," Commissioner Bettman said. "In Vegas Golden Knights games against the [New York] Rangers (on Jan. 8) and the [San Jose] Sharks (on Jan. 10), we saw exactly how fast, how precise, and how powerful they are.
"Amazingly, within the confines of our 200 by 85-foot rink, Brent Burns and Jonathan Marchessault each skated more than 3 miles. William Karlsson skated over 20 miles an hour. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. The applications are endless.
"Our original goal was to create a broadcast enhancement that could be used in real time - no other sport has that. And while not developed with this in mind, the application to sports gaming could very well create even more interest in hockey, and more fans, and that's only going to help grow the game."
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