Hockey Reference NHL Stats Scraper

Hockey Reference NHL Stats Scraper

Scrape NHL player stats from Hockey Reference by season, for skaters or goalies, up to a million rows per run. Every player comes with their team, position, games played, goals, assists, points, and advanced metrics. No login or API key. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

Hockey Reference is the go-to public source for NHL player statistics, but it has no official API and scraping it by hand means copying tables season by season. This Actor reads the season stat pages directly, for skaters or goalies, and returns each player as one flat row with their basic and advanced numbers. You control the season and how many records to collect.

Who uses it	What they scrape Hockey Reference for
Fantasy hockey analysts	Pull full-season skater and goalie stats to rank players for drafts and trades
Sports journalists	Gather season totals for articles, previews, and player profiles
Hockey data hobbyists	Build personal datasets of NHL stats across multiple seasons
Betting modelers	Collect player performance data to feed predictive models

What it does

This Actor collects NHL player statistics from Hockey Reference for a given season and player type, and returns each player as one flat row.

• 🏒 Skaters or goalies: pick one player type per run, each with its own stat columns.
• 📅 Season selector: set the season end year, like 2024 for the 2023-24 NHL season.
• 🔢 Row limit: cap the number of records from 1 up to 1,000,000 per run.
• 📦 Flat output: every player is one row, ready for CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML export.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with Hockey Reference data

🏒 Build a season dataset.

A data analyst runs the Actor for the 2023-24 season with playerType set to skaters and maxItems 1000, then exports the CSV to compare point totals across the league.

📊 Rank fantasy goalies.

A fantasy hockey player pulls goalie stats for the current season, filters by save percentage and games played, and uses the output to set their draft board.

📰 Fact-check a player profile.

A sports writer runs the Actor for a specific season to verify a player's goals, assists, and plus-minus before publishing a feature story.

📈 Feed a betting model.

A modeler collects skater stats for the last five seasons, one run per season, and joins the outputs to train a points prediction model.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	Reads the public Hockey Reference pages directly, no registration or OAuth
One row per player	Flat schema with basic and advanced stats, easy to join or export
Season by season	Pull any NHL season from the modern era by its end year
Skaters and goalies	Separate stat sets for each player type, no mixed columns

How it compares

No other Store actor targets Hockey Reference the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.

	Hockey Reference NHL Stats Scraper	Build it in-house	By hand
Setup	Run it now, zero config	Days of engineering	None, but hours per pull
When Hockey Reference changes	Maintained for you	You fix it	You re-learn the page
Proxies, retries, anti-bot	Built in	Your problem	Browser only
Output	Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export	Whatever you build	Copy-paste
Cost	Pay per result	Engineering time	Analyst hours

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with a season and a player type, and set a maximum number of records to collect per run. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "season": "2024",
 "playerType": "skaters",
 "maxItems": 10
}

A larger pull:

{
 "season": "2024",
 "playerType": "skaters",
 "maxItems": 200
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.021 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$2.10
1,000 results	$21.00
10,000 results	$210.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the Hockey Reference NHL Stats Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to Hockey Reference through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

$claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/hockey-reference-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Check that the season you entered exists on Hockey Reference and that the player type matches the available tables. Also make sure maxItems is set to at least 1.

Why are some player rows missing advanced stats?

Advanced stats may not be available for all seasons or player types on Hockey Reference. Try a more recent season or switch player type.

The run is taking too long.

Lower the maxItems value to collect fewer records, or check your Apify plan's memory and timeout settings.

I get an error about the season format.

Enter the season as a four-digit end year, like 2024, without any extra characters or the full season range.

The output has duplicate players.

Hockey Reference may list a player on multiple teams in one season. Use a deduplication step in your downstream processing if needed.

FAQ

Question	Answer
What is Hockey Reference?	Hockey Reference is a public website by Sports Reference LLC that provides NHL player and team statistics for every season in league history.
What data does this Actor return?	It returns one row per player for the selected season and player type, including basic stats like goals, assists, and points, plus advanced metrics such as Corsi and Fenwick where available.
Do I need an API key or login?	No. The Actor reads the public Hockey Reference pages directly, so there is no registration, OAuth, or API key required.
Can I scrape both skaters and goalies in one run?	No, each run collects one player type. Run the Actor twice, once with playerType set to skaters and once to goalies, to get both.
How do I specify the season?	Use the season input field with the season end year. For example, enter 2024 for the 2023-24 NHL season.
What is the maximum number of records I can collect?	You can set maxItems up to 1,000,000 records per run. The default is 10.
What export formats are supported?	The Actor outputs data in CSV, JSON, Excel, and XML formats through the Apify platform.
Does this Actor get advanced stats like Corsi or Fenwick?	Yes, the advanced stats tables on Hockey Reference are included when available for the selected season and player type.
Can I scrape historical seasons?	Yes, you can enter any season end year that exists on Hockey Reference, from the early NHL years to the current season.
Is this Actor affiliated with Hockey Reference?	No, this is an independent scraper built for the Apify platform. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Sports Reference LLC.

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🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Sports Reference LLC. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.