Sports Reference Blog

Big news for all you Statheads! We've just added a very exciting new tool called the Versus Finder; here's everything you need to know about it!

Launching first on Stathead Hockey, the Versus Finder combines the functionality of a couple different Stathead tools while adding a bunch of new features and an entirely new display. The Versus Finder has three main search types:

Player vs Player

With this search type, you can compare stats for up to six players head-to-head. For example, you can see how Patrick Roy's stats compare to Dominik Hašek's.

At the top, you'll see a new graphic like the one at the top of this post, showing you their career stats, as well as how they stack up in different awards and accomplishments. Below that, you'll see tables with all their stats from Hockey Reference. If you select just two players, you'll also be able to see their stats in games where they faced off head-to-head.

Some of this functionality used to exist in the Player Comparison Finder, however, the comparison graphic is brand new, as is the inclusion of awards and accomplishments such as winning the Stanley Cup.

Team vs Team

In the second kind of search you can do, you'll see how teams match up against one another. For example, you can compare the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers.

Just like in the Player vs Player search, you'll see a cool graphic on top that shows the head-to-head record of the teams when they square off, as well as all-time team stats and info on how many times they reached the playoffs or won a title.

Below the graphic, there's a table showing recent games between the two franchises, and below that a year-by-year breakdown of the teams' head-to-head matchups. Finally, you can see tables with all the stats from the teams' head-to-head showdowns.

This search type is new to Stathead Hockey, although it existed previously in some of the other sports as the Rivalry Finder.

Player vs Team

Finally, the last search type gives you the chance to dive into the history of a matchup between a single player and a franchise. For example, you can see Wayne Gretzky's stats against the Calgary Flames from his entire career, across all the teams he played for.

This search gives you the player's cumulative career statline against the franchise, as well as tables with his single season totals and a game log of every time he faced that team.

This search type is completely new to Stathead!

In all three search types, you have the option to search all seasons, a single season, or a range of seasons. You also have the option to compare stats from the same season for all players and/or teams (for example, Connor McDavid, David Pastrňák, and Leon Draisaitl's 2022-23 stats) or different seasons for the players/teams (for example, Connor McDavid's 2022-23 and Wayne Gretzky's 1986-87).

What's Next

This tool is currently just on Stathead Hockey, but we are in the process of building the Versus Finder on the other sites! When it arrives, it will have all this functionality, plus a few other features that make sense for that sport. For example, on Stathead Baseball, the Versus Finder will include Batter vs Pitcher matchups.

As we're working on this, we'd love to hear from you! If you've used the Versus Finder, we'd really appreciate it if you took a few minutes to fill out this survey so we can make sure it's meeting your needs.

If you've read this far and you're still not a Stathead subscriber, what are you waiting for! Stathead is your all-access pass to the Sports Reference websites you already know and love. Our array of discovery tools will let you dive deeper into the sports you love. Plus, you can browse the Reference sites ad-free with a Stathead subscription. If you've never used Stathead before, you can try it for free for a month before committing. Try it today!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 5th, 2023 at 11:19 am and is filed under Announcement, Hockey-Reference.com, Stathead. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.