Who says bloggers know nothing about hockey?!

On Sunday night, the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Vegas Golden Knights in Game Six of the Stanley Cup Final. And with it, ex-CanucksArmy writer and editor Rhys Jessop is the first alumnus from this website to win the Cup.

Jessop was a key figure in moving our site toward objective, data-driven prospect analysis. He began applying statistical principles to publicly available data, such as age adjustments to account for differences in ability among players based on their birth month within their draft year.

For me personally, Jessop will best be remembered for his 2014 piece titled: “We think the Vancouver Canucks may have a scouting problem(!!!!)”

In the article, Jessop stated that “Vancouver’s drafting really has been inexcusably awful for over a decade now.” Most importantly, that article was the birthplace of Sham Sharron — a fictional summer intern named after fellow ex-CanucksArmy contributor Cam Charron (and current analyst with the Pittsburgh Penguins) that used the most basic methods of scouting possible to see if it could outdraft the Canucks’ Amateur Scouting staff. Essentially, Sham selected whatever 17-year-old CHL skater had the highest number of points at each spot in the draft. No goalies, no non-CHL skaters. And it worked. 

Here are two of my favourite highlights from that article (you can read the full article by clicking here):

We love Sham Sharron so much that five years ago, we brought him back in to take a look at the Canucks’ drafting record under Jim Benning; and we might just bring him back before this year’s draft to take a look at the Canucks’ drafting under Todd Harvey…

But we’re getting sidetracked. Jessop’s contributions and ideas to this site go beyond Sham Sharron, and he was a key part of a very important era in this site’s history. Like most of the “Computer Boys” who wrote at this site, Jessop was scooped up by an NHL team, as the Florida Panthers added Jessop to their organization in 2016 after hiring Cam Lawrence (known around here as Money Puck) and Josh Weissbock two years prior.

In 2021-22, Jessop, who holds a business degree from UBC’s Sauder School of Business, joined the Carolina Hurricanes as an Amateur Scout. And now, as a part of GM (and fellow former know-nothing hockey blogger) Eric Tulsky’s front office, he’s a Stanley Cup Champion.