Oilers hire CapFriendly co-founder in new hockey strategy role

NHL.com

The Edmonton Oilers have brought one of the co-founders of the now-defunct CapFriendly site aboard in a new hockey strategy role.

Among several changes to Edmonton’s hockey operations staff announced this afternoon by the team was the hiring of Dominik Zrim as the Oilers’ new director of hockey strategy. Zrim was one of the co-founders of CapFriendly and has previously worked for both the Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks.

Zrim helped launch the uber-popular cap-focused website alongside Jamie Davis back in 2015. CapFriendly went dark over the summer after being purchased by the Washington Capitals.

Warren Rychel has been promoted to #Oilers Director of Pro Scouting, Zack Kassian has rejoined the organization as Pro Scout & the team has also added Aaron Nagy, Erik Elenz, Dominik Zrim & David Evanochko to their hockey operations staff. https://t.co/4dLnIszPbN

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) September 21, 2024

This once again shows an eagerness from CEO Jeff Jackson to build out a robust staff that has experience in working with analytics. Considering how close to the cap ceiling the Oilers are, Zrim should help the team strategize how to use their space most effectively.

In a similar analytics-powered move, the Oilers have hired David Evanochko as a lead solutions architect. He will join the team’s ever-expanding data and analytics group which will help inform the Oilers’ front office on hockey ops matters.

Erik Elenz was also formally introduced as the team’s new video and analytics coaching coordinator.

Also announced this afternoon was the promotion of Warren Rychel to Edmonton’s director of pro scouting, filling the void left by the departure of Brad Holland earlier this week. While Holland was an AGM with the team, it does not appear that Rychel will be stepping into that role, signalling that the Oilers may hire someone outside of the organization instead.

The return of Zack Kassian as a pro scout was also officially announced by the team after he was listed as such in the team’s training camp guides handed out to media earlier this week. Joining Kassian as a new hire on the Oilers scouting team is Aaron Nagy, who will act as an amateur scout this upcoming season.

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