This thesis investigates whether players in the National Hockey League overperform during the last year of their contract. This phenomenon is called the contract year phenomenon and suggests that players have financial incentives to perform better during this specific season. Previous research has shown evidence of this phenomenon in the National Basketball Association and some evidence in Major League Baseball. To investigate this we have used data from 6 season in the NHL between 2016 to 2022. A linear regression was conducted to identify the relationship between points per hour and contract year. A negative relationship between the variables were identified, probably due to the fact that worse players tend to sign shorter contracts, getting a contract year more often. When fixed effect regression was conducted to compare individual players with themselves over time, no significant relationship between the variables was observed, indicating that there is no evidence of the contract year phenomenon in the NHL. The non existing effect remains when looking at specific contract statuses and position in combination with the contract year variable.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-503499 |
| Date | January 2023 |
| Creators | Rönnlund, Linus, Abrahamsson, Felix |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Statistiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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