Template talk:Infobox ice hockey biography/NHL Infobox Suggestions Archive

Pre-NHL Field (REMOVED)
I really have objections to the "Pre NHL" field: "(the TEAM the player played for before playing for any NHL-affiliated club. ie: if a player played in the CHL, IHL, ECHL, AHL, then finally the NHL, the pre-NHL team is the CHL team. pre-NHL also refers to NCAA, and any major European/Russian league)" There are many different avenues on the way up the NHL. Many players would have  been on multiple major junior and minor pro teams (EX: Jason Spezza). Picking just 1 team per player out of convenience is misleading. I would suggest dumping it, realizing that the articles should have career stats for college/major junior/euro/minor pro included. ccwaters 15:49, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Sorta...kinda...yeah, I guess that's true. In retrospect, I guess that this parameter has a tragic flaw when dealing with NHL players, as opposed to NFL or NBA players.  And if I change it to allow for multiple teams, who knows what an ambitious wikipedian might make of the infobox.  the strokes 17:10, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
 * "Pre-NHL" field has been removed from the template, and all pages using this infobox the strokes 17:46, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Move to Template:Infobox Ice Hockey Player (DONE)
My other suggestion would be to rename it to a broader "Template:Infobox ice hockey player"... ccwaters 17:55, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
 * page moved to Template:Infobox Ice Hockey Player the strokes 18:52, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Create Mandatory "league" Field (DONE)
...and remove the NHL specific langauge (which would seem to be trivial). There are a lot of euro hockey players articles and some minor pro articles that use this template minus the NHL naming. Otherwise: Its great, and thanks for your efforts. ccwaters 17:55, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Solution: a mandatory field for the league the strokes 18:52, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Units of measure REDUNDANT
(Don't hate me)... As it is, you'll probably get into a cultural agrument over English vs Metric. We should probably address it now before this template gets wide spread. I'd just supply both... a couple example on how to implement it: Template:Infobox_Tennis_player or Template:Infobox U.S. Route... ccwaters 19:19, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Hold on a sec. I'm not sure what is "English" measurement.  Do you mean imperial?  Because the heights and weights are already in imperial and metric units. the strokes 19:34, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Yeah... Same thing. English unit/Imperial unit. I guess you have them...did you change it just recently? ccwaters 19:43, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Nevermind I was looking at your specs, not the actual template. Template:Infobox Ice Hockey Player. I editted them for you. ccwaters 19:46, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
 * lol, this confusion is getting out of hand. The template actually converts the imperial units into metric.  All that has to be entered is height in feet, height in remaining inches, and weight in pounds, and the template takes care of it from there
 * ACTUALLY, my bad, I didn't copy the correct parameters. It should have been height_ft height_in and weight_lb the strokes 19:56, 15 June 2006 (UTC)


 * I'm done for the day :) ccwaters 20:02, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

Catches/shoots (BOTH FIELDS MADE OPTIONAL)
For goalies, they have a "shoots" attribute as well as the optional "catches" attribute. Is there any way to make it so only one of them is included? (i.e. Right now, Dan Cloutier has both "catches" and "shoots" attributes.) -→ Buchanan-Hermit ™ / ?!  23:05, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
 * ESPN and TSN both list goalies with a preferred shot hand. Therefore, it will remain a required field for all players the strokes 23:45, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Alrighty then. It just seems a bit redundant, since a) goalies hardly shoot on goal, so listing the shooting hand seems useless, and b) their catching hand and shooting hand is the same about 99% of the time (except for rare cases like Curtis Joseph). -→ Buchanan-Hermit ™ / ?!  23:54, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
 * lol, now you've got me thinking. You make a good point, plus nhl.com, tsn.ca, and espn.com only list one or the other. hmmmmmmmm.  let me see what I can whip up. the strokes 00:02, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I've got nothing. I just made "Shoots" optional the strokes 00:10, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Prospects (prospect_league & prospect_team ADDED)
Why shouldn't we list AHL teams as past teams if they were permanently promoted. Also, is it okay if we use this template for prospects? One last question: Which fields should we use for players from now dissolved communist nations that defected, such as Petr Nedved? Briememory 20:32, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I think the purpose of an infobox is to give the reader a quick glance at the important points of the player's profile. I don't think that the AHL team a player played for is really all that important, as some NHL clubs share AHL teams, and some do not even have AHL teams. For me at lease, to list it as a "vital stat" would really just clutter up the infobox.  I have now moved the Former teams field to just under the  team field, as to push the reader into thinking that the former teams listed will be of the same league as mentioned in the field directly above.  If the reader does want to know all the "Pre-NHL" teams the player played for, another user has already noted in a suggestion above that there should be a comprehensive list at the bottom of the player page.


 * Sure you can use it for NHL prospects. I will add another league field ("prospect_league"), so that the prospect's current club can be listed.  I won't make the primary league field optional though, so the prospects will have to have been drafted by an NHL team that you can list under "league"


 * For Nedved, he defected to become a canadian citizen (which I'm pretty sure he still is even though he lives in NYC), and never played for the czech olympic team. His nationality is canada.  If a player was born in a now defunct country, just use the country as it was when he was born for his borthday, but list his nationality as the current country (unless he changed nationalities later like Nedved) (ie: Ales Hemsky was born on day, month, year, in CS (czechoslovakia), but his nationality is listed as czech republic). the strokes 01:57, 19 June 2006 (UTC)


 * I did a prospect, the way you suggested (Drew Stafford). I listed the NHL team he was drafted and signed by in the league and team fields, respectively. I also did it for an AHL player (Patrick O'Sullivan) using the prospect fields for the AHL. Are both of these done currectly? {I haven't listed them below yet) Briememory 15:43, 19 June 2006 (UTC)


 * Both look good to me the strokes 17:20, 19 June 2006 (UTC)


 * Just as a general notice to anyone else planning on using this optional field, any entry into the "prospect_league" field will also generate the title (prospect) next to the pro team listed in the "league" field the strokes 22:28, 19 June 2006 (UTC)


 * Should these prospect fields be used for players who were sent to the AHL? For example, Randy Jones played for the Flyers for several games, but finished the season with the Philadelphia Phantoms of the AHL. So, should he be listed as a prospect with his current league as the AHL, or should the regular league and team be used for the AHL? Briememory 20:13, 22 June 2006 (UTC)


 * If the player has been up and down between the AHL and the NHL recently, use the prospect field for his AHL team. If the player was not been recalled by his NHL team in over a year, it's safe to say he's a career AHLer, and his primary league is AHL the strokes 22:19, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Player Name
Just a small suggestion: other sports player templates have the player's name above the rest of the template (see: Template:Football_player_infobox, Template:Infobox_golfer, Template:Infobox_NBA_Player, etc.). Might I suggest we do the same with this infobox? It could be done easily with so we won't have to edit all of the infoboxes that are already in place. It's obviously not necessary, but I think it looks nice. CptUnconscious 19:02, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I was leaning against it because of redundancy; the name already appears at least twice on the top of the page (title, first sentance), but if anyone else agrees with CptUnconscious, I will change it the strokes 22:08, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree that it is redundant, however, it would be consistent with the numerous other people related infoboxes. But yes, let's hear what others think. CptUnconscious 02:11, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Using is risky. What happens if you hit a disambiguated page? Circeus 19:27, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I would like to add that Template:Infobox gridiron football person has already gone through this and decided against it the strokes 20:38, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
 * That's a very good point, I didn't think of it. Well my suggestion was based on not having to go back and edit all the player pages that have the infobox already, so I'll withdraw my support of adding the names. CptUnconscious 16:37, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Random Griping
Why the hell is such a list maintained? there's Special:Whatlinkshere/Template:Infobox Ice Hockey Player for that... Circeus19:27, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
 * lol, I guess the first thing to do is relax. Most people who are using the infobox are only updating the players on their team.  They don't really give two ***** if another team's players have the box.  When someone sees that their team isn't up to par with the other teams player pages, they work to update their team, and so more pages will be given the infobox for sake of completeness than would occur otherwise.  "What links here" just gives one long, unorganized list, and I know for a fact that no one would have taken the effort of giving Randy Jones an infobox had he not been a piece that makes the Flyers' portion look bigger.


 * when all teams have had a good portion of their players added, we'll remove it if you're really that unhappy with it. I'm assuming then the template will spread by itself.  the strokes 20:51, 24 June 2006 (UTC)


 * I think you should keep the list. It helps to see which teams are being ignored. Personally, yes I'm doing my team first, but I'm going to move on to others when I'm done, and having this list helps me find which teams need attention. CptUnconscious 01:39, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Retired Players
Should we be applying this template to retired players as well? If so, I'm guessing we put the last team they played for in the team variable, is this correct? And should we include WHA (and possibly other pro leagues) for their former teams? Lastly, should we keep track of which retired player pages have the infobox on the list below? CptUnconscious 16:50, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

I took the liberty of adding the template to Terry Sawchuk. Is that how we want it done? Also when I added the halloffame variable it added two columns to the table, I suspect whoever coded that in simply forgot to create a new row. I'm too scared to touch the nice template though, so someone who is more familiar with the code should fix it. Currently the variable is commented out on Sawchuk's page. CptUnconscious 21:41, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I'm sort of hesitant to use the template for certain retired players; not all, but some. Wayne Gretzky comes to mind first and foremost, since his article is a featured article.  Would the info box have a detrimental effect on its featured status, possibly making it less appealing?  Very silly thing to worry about, I know.  It's probably just me that feels that way.--Resident Lune 21:58, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
 * You're both bang on. The Gretzky article is a feature article - an infobox would trivialize many points brought up in the text.  Because of the nature of retired players' stats, I am actually working on a separate template for them.  Give me a day to touch it up.  the strokes 15:02, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Player Numbers
Personally, I think it's just as important to include the players number in the infobox as it is to include whether or not the shoot left or right handed. Since very few teams have a full roster full of infoboxes, does anyone else think it is a good idea to include this? Thricecube --Thricecube 20:34, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Players change numbers all the time. It is not a vital stat.  If a player signed with a new team and someone already shot left, he wouldn't be forced to shoot right; if someone already had his preferred number though, he would have to pick a new one.  the strokes 21:55, 29 June 2006 (UTC)