What is Player Archetype?

A statistical profile that groups players into seven positions based on what they actually do on the ice, separate from their official roster position.

What this tells us

When you look at a player's archetype, you're seeing PuckLab's classification of their role based on their real ice-time patterns and statistical fingerprint — not just what the team calls them. A player listed as a "winger" by his team might play like a defenseman-adjacent forward in PuckLab's system. Archetypes let you compare players who have fundamentally similar jobs, even if their uniform numbers or official positions differ.

Limitations

Archetypes are snapshots of the current season and will shift if a player's role changes significantly (injury replacements, mid-season trades, coaching adjustments). A player transitioning to a new team or a new role mid-season may not have enough data yet to reflect that change. The classification depends on minimum ice-time thresholds, so very recently called-up or injured players may not have an archetype assigned.

How PuckLab calculates this

PuckLab's archetype model uses 15+ features including shot rates, positional heat mapping, time-zone distribution, penalty-differential contribution, and linemate composition. The system is recalculated weekly. Full methodology lives on /methodology page.

Example

A team might roster a forward and a defenseman, but if the forward plays most of his minutes in a heavy, shot-blocking role in his own end, and the defenseman plays deep in the offensive zone on the power play, PuckLab's archetype system may group them differently than the official position line would suggest.