Dartmouth’s Dustin Walsh is a Stanley Cup Champion

By Justin Lafleur
DARTMOUTH
Dustin Walsh is a Stanley Cup Champion. Not as a player, but as someone who impacts the Vegas Golden Knights’ operation in a number of valuable ways.

The 2013 graduate was a standout with the Dartmouth men’s hockey program, Walsh currently serves as Director of Hockey Analytics with the Golden Knights, a title he’s held for approximately two years.

But Walsh has been with the franchise in analytics since the beginning.

“My role has evolved quite a bit over time,” he said. “Analytics is still fairly new in the world of hockey, so every year, I’ve been trying to gain more traction with different parts of the organization, whether it be helping in acquisitions, trades, signings and arbitration cases, or just day-to-day with the coaches on scouting reports.

“I can contribute across every facet of the organization to a certain extent because over the years, we’ve started to find more value in different areas,” Walsh continued. “We can pass it along, so all departments are working off the same set of information.”

The Stanley Cup Championship in June was rewarding for Walsh, especially since he began with the Golden Knights before the expansion draft and played a role in helping Vegas hit the ground running.

Vegas would go on to reach the Stanley Cup Final in its first season, a truly remarkable feat.

“With Vegas having to pick one player off each team, I thought this was where analytics should be about as valuable as they had ever been,” said Walsh. “This team has to look at every player in the league and decide who they want from each team.”

How did Walsh find himself in such an important position?

Before officially joining the Golden Knights, he worked for a company called Stathletes a third-party analytics provider.

“Stathletes gives the data on NHL games and there is mountains and mountains of data out there,” said Walsh. “Player and puck tracking has become a really big, which is another facet of data.”

The amount of data at other levels of hockey — such as the minor leagues and college — is not as thorough as what’s available at the NHL level, but Walsh uses what’s at his disposal.

“At those levels, it’s a little bit more basic, like goals and assists, plus/minus and stuff like that,” he said. “But for the NHL, it’s way more in-depth: who has the puck at all times, every pass they’ve made, every possession, every puck recovery and more. You can really dial in on the skill sets of individual players.”

One player may be especially strong at a certain aspect.

“Does that aspect go well with a highly-skilled player?” said Walsh. “Maybe he’s not the best player in the world, but does he do a few things well that would complement a great player? Those are the things I’ve been very interested in, and studying, with this extra layer of data.”

Walsh works with numbers, but his playing background (as a high-level college hockey player who was selected by the Montreal Canadians in the NHL Draft) helps him put those numbers into context.

“Once I got involved with the analytics, it just came to me,” he said. “In the hockey community, I heard there wasn’t a lot of people with not only the math skills to be able to understand the analytics, but also the hockey background to make it clear and interpret the data.”

In the end, it was a perfect fit for Walsh, who had always been into math from a young age.

“At Dartmouth, I took economics which was pretty math and numbers heavy,” he said. “I had always planned on pursuing playing hockey, so when it came to an end due to injuries, I felt very much like there was unfinished business and was interested in staying involved in the game.”

All that was happening for Walsh right around the time analytics were on the rise.

“I started to read up on it,” said Walsh. “It was right around that time that I got an interview with Stathletes. They quickly showed me what they were doing, it made perfect sense to me and I wanted to get on board.”

Walsh was helping build Stathletes from its infancy, then realized there could be opportunities to work directly for an NHL organization.

“We were partnering with Vegas to help with their scouting around the league when they decided they needed someone in-house to help explain and use the analytics even more than they were,” said Walsh. “I volunteered myself. So, leading up to our inaugural season, I was helping with scouting players and doing analytics around the league on a trial run basis.

“After the expansion draft, they made it a full-time employment for the start of their first season in 2017-18.”

The expansion draft saw Vegas select players who would go onto play integral roles in the franchise’s success, including Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson and Marc-Andrew Fleury, among many.

“When we picked our team, others thought we were trying to finish last and think more long-term down the line, not build through expansion,” said Walsh. “I have some friends who work in the league for different teams who were like, ‘You guys could have drafted a much better team, but you clearly went a different direction.’”

Boy were they wrong.

“I was really happy with how it went, but I was almost concerned that we would be in the middle where we’d be good — not quite good enough, but not bad enough to draft high,” said Walsh. “Immediately, the city was behind the team and we were doing great right out of the gate.”

During the season, Walsh doesn’t travel with the team, but his responsibilities are numerous.

“A lot of my responsibilities day-to-day are for the coaching staff or management,” he said. “It involves giving them reports on pregame scouting reports on the team we’re about to play — how they’ve been doing on the year, how they’ve been doing recently, how they’re trending and key things to look for in the matchup.”

Walsh generates postgame reports as well.

“Did we hit those things that we were looking to hit?” he said. “Are we trending one way or the other right now?

“During the middle of the season, I might be asked for some insight on certain players, such as if they’re hitting the tired point of the year where they’re a little bit stagnant.”

That’s just the beginning for Walsh, whose responsibilities also include areas such as the draft, free agency and more.

“I’m also here for anytime anyone has a question, so if a player becomes available from a different team that our scouts or general manager want me to look at, they might give me a project to work on,” he said.

“It’s always a moving target.”

Walsh is grateful for his time at Dartmouth, which has allowed him to consistently hit those targets.

“Honestly, things came pretty easy to me in high school,” he said. “I was a pretty good hockey player and good student. But going to Dartmouth, I learned what it took to be that next-level of player.”

Being selected by the Canadians and going to their camps helped Walsh learn how to carry himself.

That 2017-18 team almost won a Stanley Cup, but fell just short.

The Golden Knights would return to that place five years later and have different results.

“It was pretty incredible, pretty gratifying [to win it in 2023],” said Walsh. “Everyone who has ever played the game has dreamt of lifting the Stanley Cup. Being able to do that in any capacity was unbelievable. A big reason why a lot of people are still in hockey is their competitive spirit.”

That competitive spirit, which Walsh owns, has allowed him to thrive. He wakes up every morning excited and motivated to make a difference.

“I’m confident that analytics can provide a competitive advantage,” he said. “It’s becoming more commonplace, though, so teams are generally looking at very similar things. If you can come in and find something that maybe no one else is looking at that might help our team on the ice that day, it’s a win.”

As Walsh said, some days, he might have to “go down a rabbit hole” with some numbers that don’t give the results he’s looking for.

“But when it does and you help acquire a player that helps us win a Stanley Cup, that’s what it’s all about for me,” he said.

“Dartmouth really made me grow up and learn time management,” he said. “Some people would be studying for exams for two weeks, which would land right when we were in a playoff run. Learning how to put my full effort forward in hockey, while balancing that academic aspect at such an incredible school, was a big eye-opener and learning experience.”

A learning experience that has carried forward to this day.

“It’s helped me in this job immensely because there’s always something that can be done,” said Walsh. “There’s always more data that hasn’t been studied and hasn’t been analyzed. There’s always a job to do; that time management piece is critical.”

Dartmouth has continued to be an important part of Dustin Walsh, the hockey executive and person.

“Dave Peters was the assistant coach who recruited me to Dartmouth and Bob Gaudet was the longtime head coach there,” said Walsh. “Dave is now with Columbus, so the hockey world is a small world. It’s cool to see him at the draft and talk the olden days and talk Dartmouth.”

Walsh couldn’t be more grateful for the support he’s received from the Big Green family, including after the Stanley Cup.

“I got a message from Coach Gaudet, [Koenig Family Head Coach of Dartmouth Men’s Hockey] Reid Cashman congratulated me and a number of people I didn’t even play with — but knew I was a Dartmouth guy — reached out,” said Walsh.

“Being part of that small fraternity of Dartmouth men’s hockey is really awesome and something I’ve always appreciated.”

Add a Stanley Cup Champion to that fraternity, thanks to Walsh.