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Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

fastRhockey 1.0.0 (continued development)

PWHL parity: 3 new NHL loaders + datasets

Three new season-level NHL loaders that bring NHL coverage in line with PWHL. Each is backed by a new release tag on sportsdataverse/sportsdataverse-data and powered by new extractors in fastRhockey-nhl-raw/R/scrape_nhl_raw.R and fastRhockey-nhl-data/R/nhl_data_creation.R.

function release tag rows per game
load_nhl_officials() nhl_officials one per official (refs+lins)
load_nhl_shots_by_period() nhl_shots_by_period one per team per period
load_nhl_shootout() nhl_shootout one per shootout attempt

nhl_schedule() data-availability flags

nhl_schedule() gained an include_data_flags = FALSE parameter. When TRUE, the live schedule is left-joined against the cached nhl_games_in_data_repo index from the data repo and gains 16 logical columns (PBP, team_box, player_box, skater_box, goalie_box, game_info, game_rosters, scoring, penalties, scratches, linescore, three_stars, shifts, officials, shots_by_period, shootout) telling you which pre-compiled datasets cover each game. The schedule files in fastRhockey-nhl-raw/nhl/schedules/ and the master schedule on the data repo carry these same flags.

Richer per-game JSON in fastRhockey-nhl-raw

scrape_nhl_raw.R now writes four additional top-level keys into both nhl/json/raw/{game_id}.json and nhl/json/final/{game_id}.json:

  • officials — list of {role, name} (referees first, linesmen second)
  • shots_by_period — long-form per-team-per-period shot totals
  • shootout — per-attempt summary (NULL if game didn’t reach SO)
  • plays_by_period — OLD-format index of play_indices per period
  • on_ice / on_ice_plus / penalty_box (final-state reconstruction, derived from the processed PBP) — populated only in the final/ variant since they need fastRhockey-enriched on-ice columns

Refactor: NHL loaders consolidated into R/nhl_loaders.R

All NHL season-level loaders and the shared .nhl_release_loader() helper now live in R/nhl_loaders.R, mirroring the PWHL convention (R/pwhl_loaders.R). The empty R/nhl_pbp.R file was removed since it never contained an actual nhl_pbp() scraper — only loaders. Public signatures and return types are unchanged.

New NHL Edge Analytics (33 functions)

Wraps the NHL Edge advanced-metrics endpoints under https://api-web.nhle.com/v1/edge/.... Every wrapper accepts an optional season argument (4-digit end year, e.g., 2025) — when omitted, the /now form is used to fetch the current season. All wrappers share an internal .nhl_edge_api() helper in R/helpers_nhl_edge.R.

family functions
Skater nhl_edge_skater_detail(), nhl_edge_skater_landing(), nhl_edge_skater_comparison(), nhl_edge_skater_shot_location_detail(), nhl_edge_skater_shot_location_top_10(), nhl_edge_skater_shot_speed_detail(), nhl_edge_skater_shot_speed_top_10(), nhl_edge_skater_skating_speed_detail(), nhl_edge_skater_speed_top_10(), nhl_edge_skater_skating_distance_detail(), nhl_edge_skater_distance_top_10(), nhl_edge_skater_zone_time(), nhl_edge_skater_zone_time_top_10(), nhl_cat_edge_skater_detail()
Goalie nhl_edge_goalie_detail(), nhl_edge_goalie_landing(), nhl_edge_goalie_comparison(), nhl_edge_goalie_5v5_detail(), nhl_edge_goalie_5v5_top_10(), nhl_edge_goalie_save_percentage_detail(), nhl_edge_goalie_edge_save_pctg_top_10(), nhl_edge_goalie_shot_location_detail(), nhl_edge_goalie_shot_location_top_10(), nhl_cat_edge_goalie_detail()
Team nhl_edge_team_detail(), nhl_edge_team_landing(), nhl_edge_team_shot_location_detail(), nhl_edge_team_shot_location_top_10(), nhl_edge_team_shot_speed_detail(), nhl_edge_team_skating_speed_detail(), nhl_edge_team_skating_speed_top_10(), nhl_edge_team_skating_distance_detail(), nhl_edge_team_skating_distance_top_10(), nhl_edge_team_zone_time_details(), nhl_edge_team_zone_time_top_10()

New NHL Records API integration (25 functions)

First-time integration with https://records.nhl.com/site/api/. All wrappers share an internal .nhl_records_api() helper in R/helpers_nhl_records.R that supports cayenneExp filters, limit/start pagination, and the records-API response shape ({data, total}).

New NHL Stats REST wrappers (13 functions)

Promotes endpoints that were previously only reachable via nhl_stats_misc()’s generic dispatcher into discoverable, dedicated wrappers. Documentation for nhl_stats_misc() was also updated to enumerate every valid endpoint value.

New NHL api-web miscellaneous endpoints (6 functions + 3 in-place updates)

  • nhl_wsc_pbp(game_id) – narrative-format play-by-play from wsc/play-by-play/{gameId} (distinct from nhl_game_pbp() which uses gamecenter/{id}/play-by-play).
  • nhl_draft_tracker() – live draft tracker (draft-tracker/picks/now), distinct from nhl_draft() which hits the static draft/picks/now endpoint.
  • nhl_ppt_replay(game_id, event_number) – event-level replay metadata.
  • nhl_ppt_replay_goal(game_id, event_number) – goal-specific replay metadata.
  • nhl_postal_lookup(postal_code) – broadcast region lookup by postal code.
  • nhl_smartlinks(handle = NULL) – NHL.com smart-link router.
  • nhl_scoreboard(date = NULL) – now accepts an optional date argument so callers can fetch historical scoreboards (was hardcoded to /now).
  • nhl_meta(game_id = NULL, year = NULL, series_letter = NULL) – added a third branch for meta/playoff-series/{year}/{seriesLetter}.
  • nhl_draft_year(year, round = NULL) – when round is NULL or "all", the function now hits the /draft/picks/{year}/all shortcut in a single request instead of looping per round.

New helper aggregators inspired by nhl-api-py (6 functions)

Convenience wrappers that orchestrate multiple endpoint calls into one tidy data frame:

  • nhl_game_ids_by_season(season, game_types, team_abbr, sleep_rate) – iterates every team’s season schedule and returns the deduplicated set of game IDs.
  • nhl_all_players_by_season(season, sleep_rate) – iterates every team’s roster and flattens forwards/defensemen/goalies.
  • nhl_player_career_stats(player_id) – combines player/{id}/landing with the season-by-season seasonTotals payload into a career frame.
  • nhl_team_summary_range(start_season, end_season) – multi-season team summary loop over nhl_stats_teams(report_type = "summary").
  • nhl_skater_summary_range(start_season, end_season) – same for skater summary.
  • nhl_goalie_summary_range(start_season, end_season) – same for goalie summary.

Endpoint mapping + OpenAPI specs

  • data-raw/nhl_missing_endpoint_function_mapping.md – table of every documented NHL API endpoint and its proposed/implemented fastRhockey wrapper, sourced from dfleis/nhl-api-docs, RentoSaijo/nhlscraper, and coreyjs/nhl-api-py.
  • data-raw/nhl_api_web_openapi.{json,yaml} – OpenAPI 3.0.3 spec for api-web.nhle.com/v1/ (132 endpoints).
  • data-raw/nhl_stats_rest_openapi.{json,yaml} – OpenAPI 3.0.3 spec for api.nhle.com/stats/rest/{lang}/ (21 endpoints).
  • data-raw/nhl_records_openapi.{json,yaml} – OpenAPI 3.0.3 spec for records.nhl.com/site/api/ (442 endpoints).
  • data-raw/_gen_openapi.py – regenerator script.

Bug Fixes / API quirks documented

  • nhl_stats_players() now detects data: [] empty-list responses (the API returns this when no cayenne_exp filter is supplied) and returns NULL with a friendly hint instead of crashing clean_names().
  • nhl_stats_skater_leaders() and nhl_stats_goalie_leaders() no longer pass start/limit query parameters, which the leaders/{skaters,goalies}/{attribute} endpoint rejects with a 500 Cayenne SQL error. Roxygen now documents the valid attribute values: skaters accept assists/goals/points; goalies accept savePctg/gaa/shutouts.
  • nhl_records_franchise(franchise_id = ...) now translates the franchise_id argument into a cayenneExp=id={id} filter. The records API does not support a path-suffix franchise/{id} form (returns 404).
  • nhl_records_award_details() – replaced the broken franchise_id argument with season_id (the award-details endpoint accepts seasonId filtering but rejects franchiseId).
  • nhl_stats_content_module() now guards against unnamed CMS responses that previously crashed clean_names().

New NHL Loaders

Ten new season-level loaders that pull pre-compiled NHL datasets from new release tags on sportsdataverse/sportsdataverse-data. All accept a seasons vector (Min: 2011) and return a fastRhockey_data data frame, mirroring the existing load_nhl_*() API:

function release tag rows per game
load_nhl_skater_box() nhl_skater_boxscores one per skater
load_nhl_goalie_box() nhl_goalie_boxscores one per goalie
load_nhl_game_rosters() nhl_game_rosters one per dressed player
load_nhl_game_info() nhl_game_info one
load_nhl_scoring() nhl_scoring one per goal
load_nhl_penalties() nhl_penalties one per penalty
load_nhl_three_stars() nhl_three_stars up to three
load_nhl_scratches() nhl_scratches one per scratched player
load_nhl_linescore() nhl_linescore one
load_nhl_shifts() nhl_shifts one per shift

The six pre-existing loaders (load_nhl_pbp(), load_nhl_pbp_lite(), load_nhl_player_box(), load_nhl_team_box(), load_nhl_schedule(), load_nhl_rosters()) were refactored to share a single internal worker (.nhl_release_loader()) without changing their public signatures or return types.

New PWHL Loaders

Eleven new season-level loaders that pull pre-compiled PWHL datasets from new release tags on sportsdataverse/sportsdataverse-data. All accept a seasons vector (Min: 2024) and return a fastRhockey_data data frame, mirroring the existing load_pwhl_*() API:

function release tag rows per game
load_pwhl_skater_box() pwhl_skater_boxscores one per skater
load_pwhl_goalie_box() pwhl_goalie_boxscores one per goalie
load_pwhl_team_box() pwhl_team_boxscores two (home/away)
load_pwhl_game_info() pwhl_game_info one
load_pwhl_scoring_summary() pwhl_scoring_summary one per goal
load_pwhl_penalty_summary() pwhl_penalty_summary one per penalty
load_pwhl_three_stars() pwhl_three_stars up to three
load_pwhl_officials() pwhl_officials one per official
load_pwhl_shots_by_period() pwhl_shots_by_period one per period
load_pwhl_shootout() pwhl_shootout one per attempt
load_pwhl_game_rosters() pwhl_game_rosters one per dressed player

The four pre-existing loaders (load_pwhl_pbp(), load_pwhl_player_box(), load_pwhl_schedule(), load_pwhl_rosters()) were refactored to share a single internal worker (.pwhl_release_loader()) without changing their public signatures or return types.

fastRhockey 1.0.0

Breaking Changes

  • Version 1.0.0 signals API stability for NHL and PWHL endpoints.
  • All PHF functions are formally deprecated via lifecycle. The Premier Hockey Federation ceased operations; use PWHL functions instead. Functions will be removed in a future release.
  • Consolidated new NHL API functions into existing NHL function names rather than creating _v2 variants, since the original API endpoints were deprecated by the NHL. This means nhl_game_feed(), nhl_game_boxscore(), nhl_schedule(), nhl_teams(), nhl_teams_roster(), and nhl_player_info() now use the new api-web.nhle.com endpoints directly.

New PWHL Functions

New NHL Functions

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed nhl_draft_year() – NHL API removed the /v1/draft/picks/{year} endpoint. The function now iterates over rounds 1-7 using /v1/draft/picks/{year}/{round}.
  • Fixed pwhl_stats() – resolved “object ‘players’ not found” error when API calls failed. Fixed team ID resolution for skater stats.
  • Fixed pwhl_schedule() – the season column was inadvertently dropped from the output. It is now included.
  • Fixed refresh_xg_models() – resolved “cannot change value of locked binding” error by storing xG models in a package environment (.xg_env) instead of top-level bindings.
  • Fixed NAMESPACE: removed import(tidyverse) which violated CRAN policy. Individual packages (dplyr, tidyr, etc.) are already imported.

Deprecations

Improvements

  • pwhl_season_id() now retrieves season data dynamically from the HockeyTech API instead of using a hardcoded lookup table. Falls back to hardcoded data when the API is unavailable.
  • Added internal helpers .pwhl_api(), .pwhl_modulekit_url(), .pwhl_gc_url(), and .pwhl_resolve_season_id() to reduce JSONP parsing boilerplate across PWHL functions.
  • Added lifecycle package for formal deprecation management.
  • Updated testthat dependency to >= 3.0.0.
  • Complete test coverage for all 95 exported functions (482 tests).
  • Added environment-controlled test toggles (RUN_NHL_TESTS, RUN_PHF_TESTS, RUN_PWHL_TESTS) via tests/testthat/helper-skip.R.
  • CI workflow environment variables now match helper-skip.R names.
  • Updated test expectations to match current API responses.
  • nhl_where_to_watch() returns NULL gracefully when the NHL /v1/where-to-watch endpoint is unavailable.
  • Updated _pkgdown.yml with reorganized reference sections and deprecated function categories.

Documentation & Infrastructure

  • Updated CONTRIBUTING.md with naming conventions, testing environment variables, conventional commits guide, and deprecation process.
  • Updated PR and issue templates.
  • Updated CLAUDE.md and .github/copilot-instructions.md to reflect v1.0.0 changes and new PWHL endpoints.
  • Added data-raw/pr_devel.md development scratchpad.
  • Added cran_comments.md for CRAN submission.
  • Updated _pkgdown.yml with reorganized PWHL reference sections.
  • Added R CMD check CI workflow and pkgdown deployment workflow.

fastRhockey 0.7.0

PWHL functions added

fastRhockey 0.6.0

  • Improved resiliency for several PHF functions, updates under the hood.

fastRhockey 0.5.0

  • Major improvements to NHL Game PBP Data parsing with shifts in-line via nhl_game_pbp() function added to match hockeyR.

fastRhockey 0.4.2

fastRhockey 0.4.1

  • Minor logic addition for pbp parsing.
  • More under the hood changes to adapt to tidyselect new version guidelines.
  • load_phf_rosters() function added.
  • load_nhl_rosters() function added.

fastRhockey 0.4.0

CRAN release: 2022-10-25

  • Updates logic to add Montreal Force to teams lists/parsing.
  • Under the hood changes to adapt to tidyselect new version guidelines.

fastRhockey 0.3.1

CRAN release: 2022-08-28

  • Updates documentation per CRAN’s request.

fastRhockey 0.3.0

CRAN release: 2022-03-25

  • Add print method for all functions with a time stamp and description of the data.
  • Add phf_team_logos dataset to package for reference.

fastRhockey 0.2.1

  • hotfix to helper_phf_pbp_data() penalty code.
  • add try() to function examples.

fastRhockey 0.2.0

fastRhockey 0.1.0

CRAN release: 2021-12-10

  • Prepped for CRAN.

fastRhockey 0.0.4

Loader functions for PHF

Player and Team Stats, Leaderboards

fastRhockey 0.0.3

Function naming convention normalization

fastRhockey 0.0.2

  • Added NHL functions from powerplay to fastRhockey.

fastRhockey 0.0.1

  • Added a NEWS.md file to track changes to the package.