Published on May 15, 2018 by Darin W. White, Ph.D., Executive Director for the Center for Sports Analytics  

With the Stanley Cup Playoffs in full swing, the Center for Sports Analytics at Samford University released the NHL Relevance Rankings based on over 7 million U.S. sports fans social data. The Western Conference finals feature the most irrelevant team in U.S. professional sports. With a relevance score of 0.84, the Winnipeg Jets are well below every team in the MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL and NHL. Their score puts them in the same relevance range as the Iowa Hawkeyes football team.