Before All-Star Weekend resumed Friday in San Jose with the skills competition, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced that all 31 NHL arenas will be outfitted with puck and player tracking technology before the beginning of next season.
"The puck and player tracking system can track pucks at a rate of 2,000 times per second in real time with inch-level accuracy," Bettman said. "It will be equally accurate in tracking players, their movements, speed, time on ice, you name it."
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Bettman noted the NHL first implemented puck and player tracking at the 2015 All-Star Game as a way to "supplement the information our broadcast partners were assessing in real time." The tracking was then tested at the 2016 World Cup and the 2017 All-Star Game.
In what Bettman called "the most significant step," the technology was tested at two Vegas Golden Knights games earlier this month.
"We know our players are fast, their passes are precise and their shots are hard. In Golden Knights games against the Rangers and the Sharks, we saw exactly how fast, how precise and how powerful they are," he commented.
Player and puck tracking is here! #HiTechHockey
— NHL (@NHL) January 25, 2019
Get to see this @SAP technology live during tomorrow night's @Honda #NHLAllStar Game at 8:00p ET on @nbc, @CBC, @Sportsnet & @TVASports! pic.twitter.com/uPD8vSSYBM
The technology was developed in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute, which Bettman described as the "MIT of Germany."
For those who do not want to wait until October to experience this new development, Bettman said viewers will get a glimpse of the NHL's future during the broadcast of the All-Star Game on Saturday night.