New records: Gragnani's 6,5 km per game, and Mons' 16,6 km/h

Since the very first 2019-20 KHL game, the League is using smart technology to bring the audience a vast new range of stats. The fans already know the microchips in pucks and jerseys, and now it's time to show what this technology can do. KHL.ru illustrates the most exciting data on teams and players gathered by the new technology after the first 54 days of the regular season.

Let's start with something that most of the fans already know - starting from the 2019-20 season, data gathered from smart microchips are viewable during the text broadcasts on the KHL.ru website. Fans can now get information in real-time, for example, about the players' top speed and distance run, or the teams' puck control duration. Soon, there will be new stats available. The most attentive fans, however, may have noticed them already during the TV broadcasts.

So, what did the smart pucks tell about the players and teams?

Puck control

One of the most intriguing stat is how much time players spend with the puck. As you can see from the top-5, the players who most often play the puck are playmakers like SKA's Vladimir Tkachyov or Salavat Yulaev's Linus Omark, or offensive defensemen whose task is to bring the puck forward.

Not surprisingly, the same five players are the top-5 ranked in another stat, the distance run with the puck. But if Tkachyov was the first listed in puck control time, a defenseman leads the puck here – Charles Genoway, the only player in the League to have surpassed the 15 km mark.

Average distance run

Having run more than 15 km with the puck is a fantastic feat, but a player spends most of the game without it. To date, more than a dozen players have surpassed the 100 km mark, but comparing total figures would be inaccurate due to the different numbers of played games.

However, average distance run is an appropriate measuring stick, and here Dinamo Minsk's blueliner Marc-Andre Gragnani takes the lead. By the way, in the recent game against Barys, he hit a record-breaking 6,584 meters.

Average speed

High speed is a crucial ingredient for success for both teams and players. That's why it's important to check who has the most impressive figures in this stat. Here, rather than the peak value, it's fundamental to track the average speed recorded along the whole first portion of the regular season. The new technology can track this data. Quite surprisingly, the fastest player in the League so far is Vityaz's Evgeny Mons, who got on top of the rankings only by a hair over last week's best rookie, Torpedo's Sergei Goncharuk.

Passing accuracy

The last category concerns the most accurate passes. Only players with at least 400 pass attempts were taken into consideration to determine the ultimate champion. After the counting, SKA's Swedish defenseman David Rundblad was crowned, with a passing accuracy of 88,6%.

The best playmakers in the League, Tkachyov and Omark, can boast a passing accuracy of 80,3% (633/788) and 77,8% (551/708), respectively.

The data discussed in this article is just a small portion of what the new smart pucks technology can show the public. This data not only allows the fans to gather more information on their favorite players. Teams can also leverage the system for free.

KHL.ru will keep on presenting its fans with new and exciting data.