One of the most memorable compliments Kraken analytics specialist Alexandra Mandrycky paid her boss was telling him he was “more of a nerd” than he realized.
Fortunately for Mandrycky, 31, this unique approach to employment trajectory worked out just fine, as said “nerd” — Kraken general manager Ron Francis — has promoted her to assistant GM, the NHL’s first woman to hold that title while specializing primarily in analytics.
The relationship between the team’s first two hockey operations hires, with Mandrycky actually preceding Francis by a few weeks in July 2019, has long been close beginning with them embarking on a Seattle promotional tour their first month on the job.
And to hear Francis tell it, even a little friendly nerd-calling didn’t change his mind on having Mandrycky shed her director of hockey strategy and research title to join his assistant GM inner circle alongside Ricky Olczyk and Jason Botterill.
“I’ll take that as a compliment, thank you,” Francis said, adding he’s proud to be teased for being open to incorporating analytics within the team’s approach. “I think that any tools you can use to help you become better, you’d be foolish not to use them.
“We’re trying to be the best we can be and using all the people that we have with expertise to make us better. Whether that’s scouts in the field or people looking at data or a computer base. I think everyone can help.”
Speaking of scouts, it was Mandrycky’s ability to seamlessly blend analytics with their more traditional work that ultimately secured her promotion. The team’s amateur scouting director, Robert Kron, lauded for what’s been viewed as a largely successful first two Kraken drafts, will report directly to her.
“When I reflect upon what I think has made us successful, what I consider to be a success is that nobody tries to push us out of a room,” Mandrycky said. “We’re respected by everyone in this organization, and that’s the way I think it should be.”
Mandrycky becomes the seventh female assistant GM in NHL history and the sixth hired since January. Angela Gorgone became the first female assistant GM with Anaheim in 1996-97, but it took a quarter century for the next one, as Emily Castonguay was hired in January by the Vancouver Canucks.
Kraken professional scout Cammi Granato was hired by the Canucks as an assistant GM a month later, followed this summer with Meghan Hunter getting promoted by Chicago, Kate Madigan by New Jersey and hockey icon Hayley Wickenheiser by Toronto.
Mandrycky’s ability to work well with Kraken scouts didn’t happen by accident.
She joined the Kraken after four years working as a data analyst with the Minnesota Wild’s analytics team. The Wild at the time were going through organizational turmoil, and the analytics staff wasn’t spared; having been hired by former GM Chuck Fletcher only to be constantly butting heads with a new regime headed by Paul Fenton.
The Wild ended up firing Fenton after only 14 months as GM and just weeks after Mandrycky left the team. And though analytics-front office tensions were a small part of why Fenton was let go, Mandrycky has spent the past three years with her new team working on the human-relations part of her job.
“In Alex’s case, she doesn’t come in and throw the hammer down and say, ‘This is how it has to be,’ ” Francis said.
“In a lot of our discussions we don’t just talk about analytics. We talk about players. We talk about things we’re looking for in players. And if there’s a difference of opinion — the numbers say this on Player X, but the scouts say this on Player X — it’s also about going back to the research and development [R&D] team to take another look.”
Francis added: “We ask the scouts to understand analytics. But we also need the R&D team to understand the scouts. So it’s going back and seeing games and watching the video and seeing that this is what we’re talking about. So certainly her willingness to do that has helped bridge that gap. So putting in that time and effort garners her respect. You don’t just come and ask for it. You have to earn it. And that’s what she’s done.”
And Mandrycky knows she needs that buy-in to be successful. She first became involved in hockey through her husband, a Buffalo native and avid Sabres fan, though she never played the game.
Instead, after graduating with an engineering degree from Georgia Tech, she delved into the statistical aspects of hockey to keep her analytical and programming skills sharp. And she’s since shown hockey lifers within the Kraken that she can help them win.
“No one kicks me out of a room when I walk in,” Mandrycky said. “Everyone respects me and every member of the R&D team, whether it’s the coaches, or at the draft with the scouts. Just being involved, I think, shows the impact that our group has.”