Who and what NHL athletes gravitate toward



Analyzing the entire network of NHL players, and who they're following, yields interesting and amusing results.

This article will explore and visualize the data.

Most Popular

Bob Mckenzie is by far the most popular follow among NHL players. He's followed more than both the official NHL and NHLPA accounts.

The most followed person not associated with the NHL is Tiger Woods.

Mike Commodore is followed by less than 100,000 people but followed by 140 NHL players.





# Name Username # of NHL Players Followed by 1 Bob McKenzie @TSNBobMcKenzie 373 2 NHLPA @NHLPA 358 3 NHL @NHL 329 4 Paul Bissonnette @BizNasty2point0 292 5 Darren Dreger @DarrenDreger 292 6 Pierre LeBrun @PierreVLeBrun 245 7 Elliotte Friedman @FriedgeHNIC 165 8 The Players' Tribune @PlayersTribune 158 9 Tiger Woods @TigerWoods 151 10 James Duthie @tsnjamesduthie 146 11 Kevin Weekes @KevinWeekes 144 12 Mike Commodore @commie22 140 13 Rory McIlroy @McIlroyRory 134 14 Bucci Mane @Buccigross 132 15 Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump 130 16 Jay Onrait @JayOnrait 130 17 Jeremony Roenick @Jeremy_Roenick 129 18 Barstool Sports @barstoolsports 128 19 CNN Breaking News @cnnbrk 125 20 not Dany Heatley @DanyAllStar15 121 21 Jimmy Fallon @jimmyfallon 118

Other Team Sports

You can download a longer list of the top people that players follow here

Among NHL players, the NFL is the most popular on Twitter.Individual sports

Wayne vs. Paulina

It isn't a competition, but surprisingly being the greatest of all time doesn't necessarily mean you're the most popular on social media (or even in your family).53 NHL players follow Paulina Gretzky, 44 NHL players follow Wayne Gretzky

Space

Breaking Bad

Some players are interested in Nasa, SpaceX, or Elon Musk. No one is following Blue Origin ( @blueorigin ) yet though!

Console Wars

Visualizing the players interested in 'Breaking Bad' and (some) of its actors; Sam Ganger is apparently quite the fan.

Visualizing the console wars. Xbox is the favorite among players.

Disclaimers (Boring Information)

Patrick Kaleta is the only player in the NHL following @WWE , Yannick Weber is the only player following @WWF A surprising number of players follow the parody account @SidneyCrosbyEgo No one follows any of the fake/parody Gary Bettman accounts that are on TwitterZach Boychuk follows 730,000+ people on Twitter. For reference, everyone in the entire NHL, omitting the few players who follow more than 3000 people, only follow around 125,000 people in total

The data that was analyzed was captured between August 4th and 5th in 2017.

I omitted any NHL player accounts following more than 3000 people from this analysis.

The player list is built from this Twitter list. I noticed that it contains a few mistakes but everyone on the list appears to either be in the NHL or a recent ex-NHL player.





Any other analysis or data you'd like to see? Let me know on reddit or twitter