Elite Prospects

Elite Prospects
Website type
Ice hockey statistics database
Available inEnglish
HeadquartersStockholm, Sweden
FounderJohan Nilsson
Websitewww.eliteprospects.com
Launched2 December 1999; 26 years ago (1999-12-02)
Current statusActive

Elite Prospects (stylised as EliteProspects and abbreviated to EP) is a Swedish ice hockey statistics website and database. The site indexes players, coaches, teams and leagues across professional, junior and college hockey worldwide. With more than 1.27 million player profiles, it has been described as ice hockey's equivalent to Wikipedia.

The site was founded in 1999 by Johan Nilsson, then a high school student in Kalmar, Sweden.

History

Elite Prospects was started on 2 December 1999 by Johan Nilsson, a student in Kalmar. Early content consisted of weekly scouting reports and simple HTML player pages aimed at a North American audience.

The site migrated from static HTML to a MySQL database in 2004. In summer 2005, Nilsson began systematically tracking player transfers, a feature he has cited as the main driver of the site's early growth. In 2007, the site was acquired by the Swedish sports-media company Everysport, with Nilsson continuing to lead it; he transitioned to working on Elite Prospects full-time in 2012.

Live coverage of the NHL Entry Draft was launched in 2010. The database surpassed one million registered players in February 2023. For the 2024 World Junior Championship, held in Gothenburg, Elite Prospects was the "official career partner".

The company has offices in Stockholm, Växjö, and Tampa, Florida.

Content and features

Volunteer fact-checkers update information, and statistical corrections are reviewed by a support team that requires confirmation from leagues or clubs before changes are applied. While players can request updates to their height, weight, and points, Elite Prospects requests an official source to verify updates.

EP Premium is the site's subscription tier introduced in 2018. As of 2024, Elite Prospects has 20,000 active subscriptions, more than half of which are players.

"EP-scouting"

The term EP-scouting describes sports directors perceived to rely on Elite Prospects rather than in-person scouting when evaluating signings. In an interview with the Swedish Hockey League, Nilsson noted that "EP-scouting" was likely uncommon at the SHL level but more frequent at lower divisions.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Hagesund, Johan (26 February 2023). "Möt människan: Johan Nilsson". Swedish Hockey League (in Swedish). Retrieved 5 May 2026.
  2. 1 2 "About". Elite Prospects. Retrieved 5 May 2026.
  3. 1 2 "Så startades en av världens största hockeysajter – firar 25 år". Sveriges Radio (in Swedish). Retrieved 5 May 2026.
  4. 1 2 "An Interview With EliteProspects Founder Johan Nilsson on the Occasion of its 20th Anniversary". Elite Prospects. Retrieved 5 May 2026.
  5. ↑ "EliteProspects firar 20 år: "Jag kunde aldrig se detta framför mig"". Hockeysverige (in Swedish). 2 December 2019. Archived from the original on 24 October 2022. Retrieved 5 May 2026.
  6. 1 2 Schram, Carol. "Defying Trends, Hockey Portal 'Elite Prospects' Is In Growth Mode". Forbes. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  7. 1 2 Ates, Murat (30 March 2020). "The 3 wildest behind-the-scenes stories from Elite Prospects' 20 years online". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  8. ↑ "Join the Hockey Community Using 30+ Premium Tools". Elite Prospects. Retrieved 5 May 2026.