The women guiding some of the NHL trade deadline’s key teams

KATERINA WU ALWAYS LOVED HOCKEY. Same with numbers.

But the concept of marrying those two in a career like she has now, as senior data scientist for the Pittsburgh Penguins? That revelation came about, fittingly, through healthy competition — and, admittedly, a dash of “pure spite.”

“One of my friends [in college] made a bet with me that my team wouldn’t make the playoffs,” Wu told ESPN. “And I tried to use statistics basically to prove him wrong by running my own playoff simulation to calculate the probability that my team was going to make the playoffs. From there it was like, ‘Oh, this is really cool; I can apply what I learned in my stats courses into sports.'”

Wu is part of an expanding roster of women breaking barriers to earn coveted NHL front office positions. According to the league, all 32 clubs currently employ women in their hockey operations departments with roles ranging from assistant general managers to scouts, analysts, skating coaches, and player development positions.

While there is still room to grow in diversifying front offices, the increased visibility of women in prominent roles is growing the sport in long-overdue ways, and could be linked…