The Penguins analytics department lost a key piece on Monday, when the Buffalo Sabres hired Sam Ventura.
Ventura, 33, started as a consultant for the Penguins in 2015. His role and his voice within the front office grew in the years since, as he was promoted several times. Just last offseason, former general manager Jim Rutherford made Ventura director of hockey operations and hockey research. In this role, not only did Ventura provide advanced statistical analysis but he also worked with contracts, the salary cap and the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The Swissvale native, who graduated from Woodland Hills High School and holds a PhD from Carnegie Mellon, will now serve as the Buffalo Sabres’ vice president of hockey strategy and research. While the move will take Ventura away from his hometown and the team he grew up rooting for, it does create a reunion. Jason Karmanos was the one who initially brought Ventura into the Penguins organization in a full-time capacity. After being fired last offseason in Pittsburgh, Karmanos was hired in April as Buffalo’s associate general manager.
It remains to be seen how the Penguins new front office will handle the departure with new general manager Ron Hextall and president of hockey operations Brian Burke navigating their first offseason in Pittsburgh.
The previous front office was taking steps to bolster its analytics department by handing Ventura more responsibility and bringing new hires into the organization. These moves coincided with the NHL releasing its anticipated puck and player tracking data, which has created a mountain of data for hockey analytics departments.
The Penguins do still have several similarly minded thinkers on staff currently. Nick Citrone serves as senior data scientist, hockey and business operations. Katerina Wu was hired last offseason as a data scientist.
Mike DeFabo: mdefabo@post-gazette.com and Twitter @MikeDeFabo.
First Published: July 5, 2021, 7:20 p.m.