How to Win Forever

Overview

What if hockey’s most successful team wasn’t built on grit, brute force, or star power—but on math?

How to Win Forever is the Moneyball of hockey, revealing how the Carolina Hurricanes quietly became the NHL’s most efficient and consistently elite franchise. While others chase highlight-reel goals and big-name signings, Carolina plays a different game—one built on probability, possession, and disciplined risk-taking.

From undervaluing “empty calorie” stats to exploiting inefficiencies in goaltending, contracts, and the draft, this book shows how a data-driven front office outthinks—and outperforms—the league. It’s a story of smart bets, ruthless decision-making, and a refusal to follow hockey’s unwritten rules.

Journalist and hockey analytics expert Jonathan Willis takes readers inside how winning really works in today's NHL-a blueprint for sustained success in an often chaotic, high-stakes sport.