# Hockey Reference Scraper - NHL Player Stats (`lulzasaur/hockey-reference-scraper`) Actor Scrape Hockey-Reference.com for NHL and WHA player stats. Browse 8,700+ players by letter or get detailed career stats with goals, assists, points, plus/minus, penalty minutes, and point shares. - **URL**: https://apify.com/lulzasaur/hockey-reference-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [lulz bot](https://apify.com/lulzasaur) (community) - **Categories:** E-commerce - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, NaN bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $5.00 / 1,000 results This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## Hockey Reference Scraper Scrape NHL and WHA player statistics from [Hockey-Reference.com](https://www.hockey-reference.com). Browse 8,700+ players across 26 letter index pages, or get detailed career stats including goals, assists, points, plus/minus, penalty minutes, and point shares. ### Features - **Index Mode** - Browse player index pages by letter. Extract names, positions, years active, and league (NHL/WHA) - **Detailed Mode** - Follow player URLs for full career stats with season-by-season breakdowns - **Skater Stats** - Goals, assists, points, plus/minus, penalty minutes, shots, shooting %, TOI, faceoffs, hits, blocks - **Goalie Stats** - Wins, losses, GAA, save %, shutouts, quality starts, goals saved above average - **Playoff Stats** - Separate regular season and playoff stat tables - **Point Shares** - Offensive/defensive point shares from misc stats table - **Hall of Fame** - Identifies Hall of Famers from bold formatting on index pages - **Biographical Info** - Name, position, shoots/catches, height, weight, birth date, birth place, draft info ### Modes #### Index Mode (`index`) Lists all players from one or more letter index pages. Fast, lightweight, no player page requests needed. **Input:** - `scrapeType` = `index` - `letter` - Optional single letter a-z (leave empty for all 26 letters) - `maxResults` - Maximum players to return (default: 500, max: 10000) **Output:** ```json { "name": "Wayne Gretzky", "position": "C", "yearsActive": "1979-1999", "league": "NHL", "isHallOfFamer": true, "url": "https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/g/grMDwa99.html", "letter": "g", "scrapedAt": "2026-04-25T12:00:00.000Z" } ```` #### Detailed Mode (`detailed`) Fetches index pages first, then follows each player URL to extract full career statistics. Slower due to per-player requests with 3s rate limiting. **Input:** - `scrapeType` = `detailed` - `letter` - Optional single letter (recommended to limit scope) - `maxResults` - Maximum players to scrape (default: 500) **Skater Output:** ```json { "name": "Wayne Gretzky", "position": "Center", "shoots": "Left", "height": "6-0", "weight": "185", "birthDate": "1961-01-26", "birthPlace": "Brantford, ON, CA", "isGoalie": false, "regularSeason": [ { "season": "1979-80", "team": "EDM", "league": "NHL", "gamesPlayed": 79, "goals": 51, "assists": 86, "points": 137, "plusMinus": 15, "penaltyMinutes": 21, "powerPlayGoals": 13, "shots": 284, "shootingPct": 17.96 } ], "regularSeasonCareerTotals": { "goals": 894, "assists": 1963, "points": 2857 }, "playoffStats": [...], "playoffCareerTotals": {...}, "miscStats": [...], "careerGoals": 894, "careerAssists": 1963, "careerPoints": 2857, "careerPointShares": 186.6, "url": "https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/g/gretzwa01.html" } ``` **Goalie Output:** ```json { "name": "Martin Brodeur", "position": "Goalie", "isGoalie": true, "regularSeason": [ { "season": "1993-94", "team": "NJD", "gamesPlayed": 47, "wins": 27, "losses": 11, "goalsAgainstAvg": 2.40, "savePct": 0.915, "shutouts": 3 } ], "careerWins": 691, "careerShutouts": 125, "careerSavePct": 0.912 } ``` ### Skater Stats Extracted Games Played (GP), Goals (G), Assists (A), Points (PTS), Plus/Minus (+/-), Penalty Minutes (PIM), Even Strength Goals, Power Play Goals, Short Handed Goals, Game Winning Goals, Even Strength Assists, Power Play Assists, Short Handed Assists, Shots, Shooting %, Time on Ice, Avg TOI, Faceoff Wins/Losses/%, Hits, Blocks, Takeaways, Giveaways ### Goalie Stats Extracted Games Played, Games Started, Wins, Losses, Ties, OT Losses, Goals Against, Shots Against, Saves, Save %, Goals Against Average, Shutouts, Minutes Played, Quality Starts, Quality Start %, Really Bad Starts, Goals Saved Above Average, Point Shares ### Point Shares (Misc Stats) Offensive Point Shares (OPS), Defensive Point Shares (DPS), Total Point Shares (PS) ### Rate Limiting The scraper uses a 3-second delay between all HTTP requests to respect Hockey-Reference's rate limits. Cloudflare protection is present but generally passes through with proper headers. For large runs, residential proxies are recommended. ### Proxy Configuration Hockey-Reference may rate-limit aggressive scraping. The default configuration uses Apify residential proxies for reliability. ### Technical Notes - Uses `got-scraping` + `cheerio` for fast HTML parsing (no browser needed) - Extracts data from `data-stat` attributes on table cells for reliable field mapping - Parses JSON-LD `schema.org/Person` data for biographical information - Handles HTML comments (Hockey-Reference hides some stat tables inside comments) - Automatically detects goalies vs skaters and extracts appropriate stat tables - Incremental data pushing every 10 players in detailed mode - Pay-per-event charging: billed per result returned # Actor input Schema ## `scrapeType` (type: `string`): What to scrape: 'index' lists players from letter index pages, 'detailed' follows player URLs for full career stats. ## `letter` (type: `string`): Single letter a-z to scrape only that letter's index page. Leave empty to scrape all 26 letters. ## `maxResults` (type: `integer`): Maximum number of player results to return. ## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`): Proxy settings. Recommended for large-scale runs to avoid rate limiting. ## Actor input object example ```json { "scrapeType": "index", "letter": "a", "maxResults": 500, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } } ``` # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "letter": "a" }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("lulzasaur/hockey-reference-scraper").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "letter": "a" } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("lulzasaur/hockey-reference-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "letter": "a" }' | apify call lulzasaur/hockey-reference-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=lulzasaur/hockey-reference-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Hockey Reference Scraper - NHL Player Stats", "description": "Scrape Hockey-Reference.com for NHL and WHA player stats. Browse 8,700+ players by letter or get detailed career stats with goals, assists, points, plus/minus, penalty minutes, and point shares.", "version": "1.0", "x-build-id": "Nhh7ECLP2IH9pSdXh" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/lulzasaur~hockey-reference-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-lulzasaur-hockey-reference-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/lulzasaur~hockey-reference-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-lulzasaur-hockey-reference-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/lulzasaur~hockey-reference-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-lulzasaur-hockey-reference-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "scrapeType": { "title": "Scrape Type", "enum": [ "index", "detailed" ], "type": "string", "description": "What to scrape: 'index' lists players from letter index pages, 'detailed' follows player URLs for full career stats.", "default": "index" }, "letter": { "title": "Letter (optional)", "type": "string", "description": "Single letter a-z to scrape only that letter's index page. Leave empty to scrape all 26 letters." }, "maxResults": { "title": "Max Results", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 10000, "type": "integer", "description": "Maximum number of player results to return.", "default": 500 }, "proxyConfiguration": { "title": "Proxy Configuration", "type": "object", "description": "Proxy settings. Recommended for large-scale runs to avoid rate limiting.", "default": { "useApifyProxy": true, "apifyProxyGroups": [ "RESIDENTIAL" ] } } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```