The Sabres on Monday announced the hiring of analytics expert Sam Ventura as their vice president of hockey strategy and research.
Ventura, who has a Ph.D in statistics from Carnegie Mellon University, had been with the Penguins since the 2015-16 season. Ventura was first hired as a team consultant, then was promoted to director of analytics and hockey research in 2017. He was promoted again to director of hockey operations and hockey research in 2020, a role that had Ventura involved with the salary cap, CBA, and the overall hockey operations' budget concerns.
Before joining the Penguins, Ventura co-founded the hockey analytics website WAR on Ice.
With the loss of Ventura, the Penguins' analytics department is among the smallest in the league.
The #NHLAnalytics chart of public hires has been updated to reflect Sam Ventura's new role in Buffalo. https://t.co/HNNly6yrAn pic.twitter.com/NgmVTfAwGB
— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) July 5, 2021
Nick Citrone, the Penguins' senior data scientist of hockey and business operations, has been with the team since 2019. Katerina Wu, a data scientist, was hired this March.
