What is With Or Without You?
A player's stats when paired with a specific teammate versus when playing without that teammate.
What this tells us
When you pair two forwards together, do they perform better or worse than when they play apart? WOWY isolates one relationship by comparing the player's numbers in games or situations where the teammate is on the ice to games or situations where the teammate is off the ice. A positive gap means the pairing helps; a negative gap means it doesn't. This is how you answer "does this line actually work?"
Limitations
WOWY is vulnerable to small sample sizes—if two players share only a few shifts, the stats will bounce around wildly and tell you almost nothing. It's also blind to why a pairing works or doesn't; it shows you the gap, not whether it's due to chemistry, matchups, or the third forward on the line. Context (zone starts, quality of competition, score state) matters enormously and WOWY doesn't account for it.
Formula[show]
Player A's stats with Player B on-ice minus Player A's stats with Player B off-ice (same strength state).Example
A top-six center and winger who've played 200+ minutes together might show a Corsi For % gap of +3 points with each other versus apart—a meaningful signal that the pairing generates more possession. But if they've shared only 20 minutes, that same +3 gap could be noise.