Meghan Chayka

Meghan Chayka (born c. 1984) is a Canadian data scientist and co-founder of the ice hockey analytics firm Stathletes.[3][1]

Meghan Chayka
Bornc. 1984 (age 38–39)[1]
Jordan Station, Ontario, Canada[2]
NationalityCanadian
Alma materBrock University, McMaster University
Occupations
  • Entrepreneur
  • data scientist
  • ice hockey analyst
Years active2010–present
Known forCo-founder of Stathletes

Career

Chayka worked as a financial analyst at the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario and as an analyst at John Deere before shifting to focus entirely on sport analysis in the mid-2010s.[4]

She is a Data Scientist in Residence at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, a position she has held since 2017.[5]

Stathletes

Chayka's first venture into ice hockey statistics came in 2009 when she and friend Neil Lane began filming her younger brother John's games while he was playing junior ice hockey in the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL), with the aim of analysing the collected data to help him improve his game. They developed a method of video analysis that produced dramatically more points of statistical data than contemporary methodologies.[6]

After John's hockey career was ended by injury, he identified the potential marketability of Chayka and Lane's method of video analysis, which eventually grew into the founding of Stathletes by the Chaykas and Lane in 2010.[2] The company grew quickly and, in 2012, the Vancouver Canucks became the first National Hockey League (NHL) team to employ their services.[7]

Chayka has used her position within the company to champion the growth of women's ice hockey and Stathletes has become an industry leader in analytics for the women's game.[8] Statistical data and analysis generated by Stathletes were used by the CBC's for its broadcasts of the women's ice hockey tournament at the 2018 Winter Olympics and the women's ice hockey tournament at the 2022 Winter Olympics.[9][10] Chayka spearheaded the landmark partnership between Stathletes and the National Women's Hockey League (PHF since 2021) to provide analytics for the 2020–21 NWHL season.[11][12]

A regular participant in academic conferences, she has spoken at a number of analytics and sports conferences, including at the 2020 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference and the inaugural Women's Hockey Analytics Conference.[13][14]

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, Chayka joined forces with Alison Lukan to present Hockey Analytics Night in Canada (HANIC), a regular online conference intended to bring together and spark discussion within the ice hockey analytics community via diverse topics and speakers.[3]

Awards and honours

Chayka was named the Ontario Chamber of Commerce's Top Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018.[15][16] In 2019, she was named to both the George Brown College's The 5 to Watch for Sports Business Executives and The Hockey News' Top 100 People of Power and Influence.[17]

Chayka appeared on The Athletic's Top Forty Under 40 in both 2019 and 2020, and Sportsnet's 25 Most Powerful Women in Hockey 2022.[18] She was identified by The Hockey News as one of twenty candidates with the credentials to become the first woman to serve as a general manager in the NHL.[19]

Alongside Melody Davidson and Sami Jo Small, Chayka was selected as an honorary coach for the 2022 PHF All-Star Showcase.[20]

Personal life

Chayka holds both an Honours in Business Administration (HBA) and a master's degree in economics from McMaster University and a BBA in finance from the Goodman School of Business at Brock University.[2][21]

Her younger brother, John Chayka, served as general manager of the Arizona Coyotes during 2016 to 2020.[22]

References
  1. Larkin, Matt (20 January 2019). "Stathletes co-founder Meghan Chayka is on the road to a higher calling". The Hockey News. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  2. Dakin, Dan (8 March 2021). "On International Women's Day, Brock alumna makes list of influential women in sport". The Brock News. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  3. Sachdeva, Sonny (20 April 2020). "Meghan Chayka reconnecting hockey's analytics community amid pandemic". Sportsnet. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  4. Bachetti, Marisa (1 February 2018). "Play ball: World Congress showcases links between sports, business, and technology". McMaster Daily News. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  5. "TD Management Data and Analytics Lab – About Us: Team". Rotman School of Management. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  6. Brunet, Mathias (12 March 2019). "Meghan Chayka: l'influence au féminin". La Presse (in Canadian French). Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  7. Samuels-Thomas, Jordan (5 April 2019). "Meghan Chayka's work in analytics is breaking ground in hockey in more ways than one". The Athletic. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  8. Podnieks, Andrew (8 March 2022). "Celebrating International Women's Day". International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  9. Aykroyd, Lucas (2 September 2019). "Chayka: "You love the game"". International Ice Hockey Federation. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  10. Leithwood, Stephen (17 February 2022). "Evolution of women's hockey takes centre stage at Winter Olympics". The Brock News. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  11. "Stathletes to Provide NWHL Analytics in 2021 Season". NWHL.zone (Press release). 7 December 2020. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  12. Larkin, Matt (8 March 2021). "'Unless You Show up on a Box Score in Women's Hockey, it's Lost': Meghan Chayka on why Stathletes partnered with the NWHL". The Hockey News. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  13. Chayka, Meghan (6 March 2020). "Rushing to Analytics: Hockey's Ability to Predict and Project Talent". MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  14. Murphy, Mike (9 July 2021). "WHKYHAC launches tomorrow". The Ice Garden. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  15. "She Shoots, She Scores". Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. Government of Canada. 5 March 2020. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  16. "Ontario Chamber of Commerce Announces Winners of the 2018 Ontario Business Achievement Awards". Ontario Chamber of Commerce (Press release). 22 November 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  17. "People Of Power And Influence: No. 95 – Meghan Chayka". The Hockey News. 17 May 2019. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  18. Sadler, Emily (8 March 2022). "The 25 Most Powerful Women in Hockey 2022". Sportsnet. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  19. Kennedy, Ian (18 January 2022). "Who Will Become the First Woman to Serve as an NHL GM?". The Hockey News. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  20. Morrison, Holly (30 December 2021). "Guest coaches announced for PHF All-Star Showcase". The Ice Garden. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  21. "Brock grad finds strength in numbers for national business competition". The Brock News. 23 July 2014. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
  22. Dixon, Ryan (20 September 2017). "Coyotes GM John Chayka has the drive to bring winning hockey to the desert". Sportsnet. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
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