Template talk:Infobox ice hockey biography

Add Infobox Fields

I understand length is an issue but compare it to Template:Infobox baseball biography or Template:Infobox NFL biography this template is overly short and does not capture the quick information that readers look for in an infobox: easy and quick facts and stats. Most readers come to Wikipedia for quick info and do not read the whole article.

Parameters to add

- Stats like Template:Infobox NFL biography and Template:Infobox baseball biography

- Team colors as seen in Template:Infobox baseball biography

- Seasons that players have been with teams next to the team name like Template:Infobox baseball biography and Template:Infobox NFL biography

- International Metals like Template:Infobox baseball biography

- Also It should be formatted so that you can have multiple major league hockey leagues and corresponding stats like Template:Infobox baseball biography and Template:Infobox NFL biography

- Change NHL Team and Former Teams to a combined teams parameter like in Template:Infobox baseball biography and Template:Infobox NFL biography along with the league years that they were on that team and for their current team: League Year–present Batgirl-Awsomeness (talk) 04:37, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

This has been discussed many times so oppose everything. In addition, I notified WP:NHL of this proposal. – sbaio 16:13, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

As this has been discussed a lot in the past and these are not broken, I would say no. Deadman137 (talk) 22:02, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

It kind of is broken though. It makes these articles much more difficult to find information on than other athlete articles. At the very least where teams are listed off they should be listed each with a year rang, as opposed to listing total career years with a list of all teams. This wouldn’t take up more space and would be more informative. Even if you think other sports infoboxes are too broad, I also think that adding major championships and awards would be really helpful. Without all that info the infobox fails to provide the kind of quick snapshot it’s supposed to and does for other sports. The hockey infoboxes fail to give any indication on the caliber of player unlike for every other sport. 50.221.227.89 (talk) 02:21, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

Strongly oppose as per MOS:INFOBOXPURPOSE. The purpose of an infobox is "to summarize (and not supplant) key facts that appear in the article". Hockey articles already have stats and seasons in the body, these do not need to be in the infobox. Team colours are useless decoration. International medals are not needed, as the national team is already listed, and statistics in a chart. Less is more. Stop the senseless clutter. Flibirigit (talk) 22:23, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

I also think the NFL/baseball templates have too much information, but I much prefer their general appearance/layout (I’m not referring to adding team colors for active players, which I don’t care about one way or the other). I would welcome such cosmetic changes for the hockey template that incorporates the existing parameters, but otherwise oppose adding more things to it. --NHL04 (talk) 03:49, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

Oppose all. Team colors not needed, wikipedia is not a coloring book. Player articles already have stats tables, is it that arduous to scroll down to see them? Not to mention the arbitrary cherry picking of which stats to include in an infobox - what does the goal total for a stay at home defenceman tell the casual reader? Infobox already has a field for a national team, and a separate medals table can be used. Years with teams are also already in the stats tables. Echoedmyron (talk) 13:58, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

Strongly Oppose all. Most other sports infoboxes are a mess and these go against the purpose of an infobox. -DJSasso (talk) 12:03, 9 June 2023 (UTC)

The way the info box is currently setup is so terrible for new fans. Please add the years and order of the teams someone has played for and add major awards/trophies. I don’t understand why hockey wants to look so terrible compared to every other major sports league. Is it just an old boys club kind of thing where people are resistant to change? As a new fan it is awful looking and unintuitive. 2600:1011:A18D:7B28:91E3:4799:30F3:7495 (talk) 20:57, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Most sports Wiki editors are resistant to change, but this infobox is barely functional as a summary of a player's career. At the very least it should include team history. ~ Dissident93 ^(talk) 15:38, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

@Dissident93 it does include team history - just not specific years, which are easily accessible from the stats tables (and often in subheadings). The Kip ^(contribs) 05:50, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

Right, but the infobox is supposed to summarize the article's key information and when it lacks specific years of their playing career, it kind of fails in that regard. ~ Dissident93 ^(talk) 14:08, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

Add career highlights / championships

International gold medals are in the infobox already, can there be professional championships as well (i.e. stanley cups, calder cups, gagarin etc.) 208.95.102.100 (talk) 19:08, 20 June 2023 (UTC)

• Oppose. This falls into the same category as the previous infobox discussion, and it is unnecessary clutter to add, when it can be easily covered in the article itself. Also, most league titles aren't a defining achievement - knowing a player's team won the Calder for example, tells me absolutely nothing valuable about a player. I might not mind if Stanley Cups alone were added by consensus, but it would likley open the can of worms to the various other titles and isn't worth it. Echoedmyron (talk) 20:41, 20 June 2023 (UTC)

  I don’t think adding Stanley Cups would really open a can of worms though. Generally other sports info boxes won’t list Championships from leagues that are considered lower tier. The only case I can think of as an exception would be College Football and Basketball where it makes sense seeing as those levels are considered noteworthy in and of themselves to a roughly equal degree to the Big 4 leagues despite being recognized as lower quality of play than the NFL and NBA. 50.221.227.89 (talk) 02:23, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

• Oppose, because of what Echoedmyron wrote and this has been discussed many times in the past. – sbaio 13:51, 21 June 2023 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 29 April 2024

Change all instances of "Entry Draft" and "Amateur Draft" and plain "Draft" to lowercase, per recent RM discussions and normal capitalization rules. Dicklyon (talk) 00:06, 29 April 2024 (UTC)

 Done Primefac (talk) 11:24, 29 April 2024 (UTC)

Prospect

I think the prospect_team and prospect_league parameters should be changed to assigned_team and assigned_league since that is basically how they've been used for many years. Likewise, the prospect (P) should be removed. It is subjective when a prospect ceases to be a prospect, but 32-year-old Dylan McIlrath is certainly not a Capitals prospect at this point. NHL04 (talk) 11:56, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

Team Years

I was curious as to why this infobox template doesn't include years of the team the player played for. All other sports infoboxes do. It could either easily be placed on the left side like how it is for the basketball or soccer player one (see LeBron James/Cristiano Ronaldo). Or it could be put to the right side in brackets like the baseball and football player one (Shohei Ohtani/Tom Brady).

I think this would be a welcomed edition to the infobox and info could easily be found and added upon by going to Elite Prospects. As I always found it annoying whenever I'm looking at a hockey players team history and having to bounce back and forth between Wikipedia and elite prospects (or dig through paragraphs) to find out what year they left a certain team, and which team they spent the longest years in. For other sports I just don't have that issue, I can easily just go on their page, look at their infobox and see they spent most of their career in "x" team, or they left that team at 20xx. ZlatanSweden10 (talk) 22:02, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

Consensus at WP:HOCKEY is against having the extra information as it adds more clutter to the infobox. The project prefers instead to have the career statistics with the years in their own section of the prose. Flibirigit (talk) 22:27, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

I don't see how this is "extra" information though. Every other athlete infobox has it and its a minor addition. Not every ice hockey player has career stats thus it would be difficult (if not impossible if the player is not well known) to know where and when the player played in a certain team/club. ZlatanSweden10 (talk) 19:48, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

I am against this for clutter reasons. Information is available in career stats section as well. Wheatzilopochtli (talk) 00:11, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Its just a minor addition though and it wouldn't clutter in the infobox at all. Every other athlete infobox has it and I wouldn't call other infobox templates cluttered. Plus not every ice hockey player has career stats thus it would be difficult (if not impossible if the player is not well known) to know where and when the player played in a certain team/club. ZlatanSweden10 (talk) 19:49, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

I would call them cluttered for sure. I do not like how it looks.

If a player's career stats are missing, they should be added. Wheatzilopochtli (talk) 20:50, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Because hockey seasons typically span two calendar years, the addition would require more than just a single year, and would create even more visual clutter in the infobox. And again, it's completely unnecessary when the stats table in a player's article is right there. You don't need to go to another website, just use your scroll button. Echoedmyron (talk) 00:58, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Other sports are also played over 2 calendar years? I don't see how that reason enough is to object adding a minor addition to this infobox template. Its also just a minor addition though and it wouldn't clutter in the infobox at all. Every other athlete infobox has it and I wouldn't call other infobox templates cluttered. Plus not every ice hockey player has career stats thus it would be difficult (if not impossible if the player is not well known) to know where and when the player played in a certain team/club. Thus I would have to go on another website like Elite Prospects like I mentioned. ZlatanSweden10 (talk) 19:51, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS (ie, "every other athlete has it", which is dubious at best) is not a valid reason for making a change. You are in the minority here, and consensus is against this. As for articles lacking stats tables, as you seem well-versed in looking things up on other websites you are welcome to do that research to add stats tables where they are missing. Echoedmyron (talk) 21:48, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Prospect fields

Once again proposing what was proposed by @NHL04 back in June. Their post from above: I think the prospect_team and prospect_league parameters should be changed to assigned_team and assigned_league since that is basically how they've been used for many years. Likewise, the prospect (P) should be removed. It is subjective when a prospect ceases to be a prospect, but 32-year-old Dylan McIlrath is certainly not a Capitals prospect at this point. Wheatzilopochtli (talk) 22:27, 4 November 2024 (UTC)

Agree with this and NHL04's proposal above. I remember this was discussed multiple times, but cannot remember where. – sbaio 14:19, 15 November 2024 (UTC)

• Support. The Kip ^(contribs) 05:52, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

adding fields for officials

infobox person is typically used for NHL/other notable officials, but it gets awkward when the official is a former pro player (see Wes McCauley) as infobox ice hockey bio can only really support players and coaches. it would be helpful in this situation to have fields for the start and end of their officiating career, position (ref or linesman/person) and some way to denote the league they officiate in.

for example, i’ve noticed that infobox basketball bio has fields for officials (see Leon Wood). Pyropylon98 (talk • contribs) 15:44, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

also the NHL has been hiring from the pool of recently retired AHL/ECHL players as of late so there will be more officials who may be notable for playing in the minors Pyropylon98 (talk • contribs) 15:56, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

One solution is to use Template:Infobox person to summarize the official, then have Template:Infobox ice hockey biography as a child template to summarize the playing career. Flibirigit (talk) 17:48, 2 December 2024 (UTC)

i really should’ve scrolled down mos:infoboxes a bit more. true, that would work for now. Pyropylon98 (talk • contribs) 18:08, 2 December 2024 (UTC)