Template talk:Infobox ice hockey biography

Add Infobox Fields

I understand length is an issue but compare it to Template:Infobox baseball biography or Template:Infobox NFL biography this template is overly short and does not capture the quick information that readers look for in an infobox: easy and quick facts and stats. Most readers come to Wikipedia for quick info and do not read the whole article.

Parameters to add

- Stats like Template:Infobox NFL biography and Template:Infobox baseball biography

- Team colors as seen in Template:Infobox baseball biography

- Seasons that players have been with teams next to the team name like Template:Infobox baseball biography and Template:Infobox NFL biography

- International Metals like Template:Infobox baseball biography

- Also It should be formatted so that you can have multiple major league hockey leagues and corresponding stats like Template:Infobox baseball biography and Template:Infobox NFL biography

- Change NHL Team and Former Teams to a combined teams parameter like in Template:Infobox baseball biography and Template:Infobox NFL biography along with the league years that they were on that team and for their current team: League Year–present Batgirl-Awsomeness (talk) 04:37, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

This has been discussed many times so oppose everything. In addition, I notified WP:NHL of this proposal. – sbaio 16:13, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

As this has been discussed a lot in the past and these are not broken, I would say no. Deadman137 (talk) 22:02, 20 April 2023 (UTC)

It kind of is broken though. It makes these articles much more difficult to find information on than other athlete articles. At the very least where teams are listed off they should be listed each with a year rang, as opposed to listing total career years with a list of all teams. This wouldn’t take up more space and would be more informative. Even if you think other sports infoboxes are too broad, I also think that adding major championships and awards would be really helpful. Without all that info the infobox fails to provide the kind of quick snapshot it’s supposed to and does for other sports. The hockey infoboxes fail to give any indication on the caliber of player unlike for every other sport. 50.221.227.89 (talk) 02:21, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

Strongly oppose as per MOS:INFOBOXPURPOSE. The purpose of an infobox is "to summarize (and not supplant) key facts that appear in the article". Hockey articles already have stats and seasons in the body, these do not need to be in the infobox. Team colours are useless decoration. International medals are not needed, as the national team is already listed, and statistics in a chart. Less is more. Stop the senseless clutter. Flibirigit (talk) 22:23, 21 April 2023 (UTC)

I like how infoboxpurpose is cited here. Supposedly hockey pages are the only infoboxes fulfilling this alleged purpose. Yeah, every other sport is doing it wrong and hockey is just fighting the good fight of being the one true soldiers of keeping the wikipedia infoboxes pure.

Give me a break lmao ~2026-34882-05 (talk) 03:50, 15 June 2026 (UTC)

I also think the NFL/baseball templates have too much information, but I much prefer their general appearance/layout (I’m not referring to adding team colors for active players, which I don’t care about one way or the other). I would welcome such cosmetic changes for the hockey template that incorporates the existing parameters, but otherwise oppose adding more things to it. --NHL04 (talk) 03:49, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

Oppose all. Team colors not needed, wikipedia is not a coloring book. Player articles already have stats tables, is it that arduous to scroll down to see them? Not to mention the arbitrary cherry picking of which stats to include in an infobox - what does the goal total for a stay at home defenceman tell the casual reader? Infobox already has a field for a national team, and a separate medals table can be used. Years with teams are also already in the stats tables. Echoedmyron (talk) 13:58, 26 April 2023 (UTC)

Strongly Oppose all. Most other sports infoboxes are a mess and these go against the purpose of an infobox. -DJSasso (talk) 12:03, 9 June 2023 (UTC)

The way the info box is currently setup is so terrible for new fans. Please add the years and order of the teams someone has played for and add major awards/trophies. I don’t understand why hockey wants to look so terrible compared to every other major sports league. Is it just an old boys club kind of thing where people are resistant to change? As a new fan it is awful looking and unintuitive. 2600:1011:A18D:7B28:91E3:4799:30F3:7495 (talk) 20:57, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Most sports Wiki editors are resistant to change, but this infobox is barely functional as a summary of a player's career. At the very least it should include team history. ~ Dissident93 ^(talk) 15:38, 22 November 2024 (UTC)

@Dissident93 it does include team history - just not specific years, which are easily accessible from the stats tables (and often in subheadings). The Kip ^(contribs) 05:50, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

Right, but the infobox is supposed to summarize the article's key information and when it lacks specific years of their playing career, it kind of fails in that regard. ~ Dissident93 ^(talk) 14:08, 25 November 2024 (UTC)

I agree that the infobox is terrible for new fans, but I do recognize that many sports infoboxes have a lot of overkill. At the very least though I think the specific years could be included for each team. Red0ctober22 (talk) 23:37, 2 April 2025 (UTC)

I support adding statistics in the infobox. Stats are the primary way to gauge a player's career and it is strange that they are not included. I think that we should only add statistics after the player is retired, like what is done at Template:Infobox basketball biography. Cyrobyte (talk) 03:10, 30 March 2025 (UTC)

By statistics, do you mean number of goals, assists, points, etc., or do you mean Stanley Cups and individual awards? I feel like the average person wants to quickly find out how many Stanley Cups or Hart Trophies a certain player has won instead of how many goals they have in their career. Red0ctober22 (talk) 23:39, 2 April 2025 (UTC)

Majority of the players don't win championships or trophies, and the ones that do should clearly have it stated in the lead. ~ Dissident93 ^(talk) 23:18, 3 April 2025 (UTC)

That is true. I think at bare minimum the years should be added that a player was on every team, but it seems there is a hard opposition to any changes, so it will likely stay that way. Red0ctober22 (talk) 17:54, 27 April 2025 (UTC)

I think at the very least year ranges for team tenures, and major league championships and recognitions should be included in the info box much like most other major sports on Wikipedia. I understand the concern about clutter, but the fact I can’t tell at a glance whether a player won a Stanley Cup or a Conn Smythe trophy is a little silly. You can argue that reading the body of the article will tell you that information, but that argument can be made about any other info box line item. I think major awards and years played are important enough to warrant infobox status. Gullible Goose (talk) 00:40, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

Strongly support adding at least years and accolades for reasons elaborated below. Mildly oppose adding career statistics, for now. -A-M-B-1996- (talk) 21:55, 26 February 2026 (UTC)

Team Years

I was curious as to why this infobox template doesn't include years of the team the player played for. All other sports infoboxes do. It could either easily be placed on the left side like how it is for the basketball or soccer player one (see LeBron James/Cristiano Ronaldo). Or it could be put to the right side in brackets like the baseball and football player one (Shohei Ohtani/Tom Brady).

I think this would be a welcomed edition to the infobox and info could easily be found and added upon by going to Elite Prospects. As I always found it annoying whenever I'm looking at a hockey players team history and having to bounce back and forth between Wikipedia and elite prospects (or dig through paragraphs) to find out what year they left a certain team, and which team they spent the longest years in. For other sports I just don't have that issue, I can easily just go on their page, look at their infobox and see they spent most of their career in "x" team, or they left that team at 20xx. ZlatanSweden10 (talk) 22:02, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

Consensus at WP:HOCKEY is against having the extra information as it adds more clutter to the infobox. The project prefers instead to have the career statistics with the years in their own section of the prose. Flibirigit (talk) 22:27, 22 October 2024 (UTC)

I don't see how this is "extra" information though. Every other athlete infobox has it and its a minor addition. Not every ice hockey player has career stats thus it would be difficult (if not impossible if the player is not well known) to know where and when the player played in a certain team/club. ZlatanSweden10 (talk) 19:48, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

I am against this for clutter reasons. Information is available in career stats section as well. Wheatzilopochtli (talk) 00:11, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Its just a minor addition though and it wouldn't clutter in the infobox at all. Every other athlete infobox has it and I wouldn't call other infobox templates cluttered. Plus not every ice hockey player has career stats thus it would be difficult (if not impossible if the player is not well known) to know where and when the player played in a certain team/club. ZlatanSweden10 (talk) 19:49, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

I would call them cluttered for sure. I do not like how it looks.

If a player's career stats are missing, they should be added. Wheatzilopochtli (talk) 20:50, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Because hockey seasons typically span two calendar years, the addition would require more than just a single year, and would create even more visual clutter in the infobox. And again, it's completely unnecessary when the stats table in a player's article is right there. You don't need to go to another website, just use your scroll button. Echoedmyron (talk) 00:58, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

Other sports are also played over 2 calendar years? I don't see how that reason enough is to object adding a minor addition to this infobox template. Its also just a minor addition though and it wouldn't clutter in the infobox at all. Every other athlete infobox has it and I wouldn't call other infobox templates cluttered. Plus not every ice hockey player has career stats thus it would be difficult (if not impossible if the player is not well known) to know where and when the player played in a certain team/club. Thus I would have to go on another website like Elite Prospects like I mentioned. ZlatanSweden10 (talk) 19:51, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS (ie, "every other athlete has it", which is dubious at best) is not a valid reason for making a change. You are in the minority here, and consensus is against this. As for articles lacking stats tables, as you seem well-versed in looking things up on other websites you are welcome to do that research to add stats tables where they are missing. Echoedmyron (talk) 21:48, 23 October 2024 (UTC)

@Echoedmyron: Could you point to the established consensus? I was able to find some debate on it circa 2016, but it (a) focused on accolades and statistics, not team years, (b) didn't actually result in an RfC and clear conclusion and (c) nearly a decade has passed since that discussion. -A-M-B-1996- (talk) 21:13, 26 February 2026 (UTC)

Update: I found it myself by reading further below and am reviewing. Adding this note to direct anyone else who is similarly looking. For what it's worth, whatever the prior consensus, there appear to be mixed opinions based on the discussions currently on this page. -A-M-B-1996- (talk) 21:51, 26 February 2026 (UTC)

It doesn’t exist nor does he intend to prove it does. The lack of improvement on the infoboxes has been well archived in terms of pushback by the same niche group of editors who claim to be bigger and holier than they are. They’ve built it into some golden hill to die on where if any little change gets made, it’s as if they lost their entire family and country. Do not expect there to be any rational counter argument from them in regards to them getting beyond their own hubris and laziness. Kanjo447 (talk) 04:10, 15 June 2026 (UTC)

Can you cite the majority? You claim he’s in the minority. I want to see cold hard facts about this alleged number. I look at the other player wikis on other sports maintained by editors who clearly are greater in number than the dozen of so pushing back on improving the NHL infoboxes over the last 20 years.

Don’t make claims you cannot prove. Kanjo447 (talk) 04:07, 15 June 2026 (UTC)

I agree it looks terrible the way it currently is. They should definitely get with the times and copy literally every other major sports leagues player box. I unironically think the terrible format is responsible for more people not getting into the history/stats of hockey and its players. When I first got into the NFL the wiki player boxes helped me learn so much. The editor geeks are just stubborn I guess. 2600:1011:A18D:DB9F:E52F:1C8B:3326:4F8B (talk) 13:20, 4 August 2025 (UTC)

Exactly, same here. It’s no coincidence that the sports I love now 20+ years later are the same sports that were so accessible in information and legibility as an autistic 5th grader browsing Wikipedia late into the night. I still cannot get into hockey as much as I would love to because there isn’t a single resource on the entire internet that makes it easier for me to keep track and lookup new information about it. NHL Wiki has to enter the 21st century already or just embrace the death of the sport that is rapidly decreasing in number of fans. Kanjo447 (talk) 04:13, 15 June 2026 (UTC)

Strongly support this change. I am a longtime hockey fan and still find the infobox lacking. While I think it would be helpful to add some statistics, similar to the football, basketball, baseball, and even soccer infoboxes, I can accept that hockey isn't as reliant on stats as most other major American sports. It might be nice to have certain accolades, particularly Stanley Cups. With that aside, the continued absence of years is unconscionable. Adding years adds necessary emphasis to the team with which he spent the most seasons. For an example, the infobox for Peter Forsberg currently gives equal standing to his time with the Avalanche and the Flyers. That's absurd. We should be identifying at a glance the team with which a player spent most time. -A-M-B-1996- (talk) 21:02, 26 February 2026 (UTC)

Strongly support - The ice hockey biography infobox is so awful that I don't even read any of it when viewing a player page for the first time, defeating the whole purpose of an infobox. I definitely get that other sports infoboxes are too cluttered, especially when it comes to all the awards, but this is such a simple change that doesn't even actually add lines to it. In fact, if you add team years, that removes the need for the "Playing career" parameter, so that actually eliminates space.

And for those who want to make the excuse that hockey seasons span two calendar years, the NBA infoboxes do just fine with a template system for that.

If team years aren't going to be added, then what makes other information currently in the infobox more important? Why is a players height/weight relevant to show in an infobox? If you can easily just scroll down and find things, why is draft information necessary in the infobox if you can just scroll down to the beginning of their playing career? Red0ctober22 (talk) 02:57, 26 May 2026 (UTC)

Strongly support - I don't think we need anything over the top or brand new fancy. Essentially copying the template from NBA would be best. It's almost laughable how Wayne Gretzky or Maurice Richard looks so basic and lacking in comparison to Tyrus Thomas or Felton Spencer. (Random NBA players I pulled.)

Team colours and all are a very nice touch but I don't know how we'd want to break it down for retired players. (Michael Jordan in Hornets colours and Larry Bird in Pacers colours just looks weird.) I'd say go with the team they spent the most time on but I also realize that is a different argument ENTIRELY.

But the Draft, Team years, and Career Highlights are all done better and have more understandable info in the NBA infobox. I do like how we have Hockey Hall of Fame at the top of an infobox, I'd want to keep that. MatthewNewHouse (talk) 03:31, 25 June 2026 (UTC)

Reason for all the lines?

Is there a reason there are so many lines in the infobox? Compare this to how {{Infobox sportsperson}} or {{Infobox person}} is designed… There are not lines after each group of labels. Is there a historic/important reason to keep this template style so differently from others? —Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 21:36, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

I recall similarities to {{Infobox baseball biography}} were discussed long ago. Flibirigit (talk) 21:48, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

Oh god… That template is terrible… lol —Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 21:51, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

If I had to guess, it's to separate groups of similar entries without needing headers. Primefac (talk) 21:56, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

Convert to Template Wrapper

I have mocked up converting this template to use {{Infobox sportsperson}} as a {{template wrapper}}. Please consult the testcases and give some feedback. This helps with consistency and displays information in a more concise format. Note that NO information should be lost. I did not remove any parameters, just modified how things are displayed. —Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 22:09, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

Why does it need to be changed? I see no apparent benefit. Flibirigit (talk) 22:29, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

The biggest reason is consistency. It also cleans up the code and allows for additional parameters to be used, for example {{{alma_mater}}} which currently not included in the template would now be inherited. Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 22:30, 24 September 2025 (UTC)

My opinion - I'm not seeing an improvement here. The Hockey Hall of Fame link is diminished, equating it with the medal record, the former being a much much higher honour. Alma mater does not apply to hockey players because amateur teams are not listed in the infobox. Adding the "sport" bar is garish. Thanks for reminding me that Rick Bowness' infobox needs a cleanup as none of those AHL/CHL teams should be there. Llammakey (talk) 11:32, 25 September 2025 (UTC)

Llammakey with a little tweaking I can move the hall of fame bar back to the top. So set that aside as a change that will definitely be made IF this is implemented. —Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 19:15, 25 September 2025 (UTC)

I also fail to see any improvements here. It also introduces unnecessary banners such as personal information and sport. Flibirigit (talk) 20:54, 25 September 2025 (UTC)

@Llammakey and Flibirigit: (and anyone else) Seems there is no consensus to implement this change so I will not pursue it further. In my cleanup of Category:Pages using infobox ice hockey biography with unknown parameters (0) I have found there are a number of pages with |spouse=, |college=, |birth_name= and some form of |relative=. These seem like pretty standard parameters for an infobox about a person. Is there any objection to adding these parameters in some form to the infobox? Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 21:56, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

Hockey persons who are not players or coaches are typically summarized instead by {{Infobox person}}. Sometimes it is appropriate to embed {{Infobox ice hockey biography}} as a child template of the former. The latter instance precludes the need to add more fields to the child template. Flibirigit (talk) 22:35, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

@Zackmann08: I think a middle ground should be reached, but if the choices are between the status quo and converting to the sportsperson template, I would support converting. -A-M-B-1996- (talk) 21:47, 26 February 2026 (UTC)

Template:Infobox person has an RfC

Template:Infobox person has an RfC for possible consensus regarding the removal of color from person infoboxes. A discussion is taking place. If you would like to participate in the discussion, you are invited to add your comments on the discussion page. Thank you. — Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 18:30, 2 October 2025 (UTC)

You didn't like the response you got here so you went and did an RFC to get around this? Holy good heavens. WP:DROPTHESTICK. Llammakey (talk) 19:47, 2 October 2025 (UTC)

What else did you expect him to do? This is such a stupid hill for the small set of you to die on. Wikipedia is supposed to be crowd sourced, but the same small set of you with all the power keep pushing back on this idea. Look at other sports pages. They are presentable and way more accessible for information. Clearly the crowd has voted that this is the way to maintain articles. But no, the conservative barebones infobox rhetoric preserved by some arbitrary “clutter” excuse is more important to fuel the egos of wiki editors who seemingly enjoy being pedantic over enjoying the sport they supposedly love. ~2026-34882-05 (talk) 03:47, 15 June 2026 (UTC)

Edit request

At the ice hockey project talk page, Conyo14 has made a request to revert this recent edit to the template by Jonesey95. Left guide (talk) 14:54, 8 November 2025 (UTC)

As you wish. Someone from the project will need to clean up Category:Pages using infobox ice hockey biography with unknown parameters. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:59, 8 November 2025 (UTC)

@Zackmann08: ↑ . Nikkimaria (talk) 17:18, 8 November 2025 (UTC)

@Nikkimaria: thanks. BEFORE fail by me... Zackmann (^{Talk to me}/_{What I been doing}) 17:20, 8 November 2025 (UTC)

Career highlights

Feels like there should be a Career highlights parameter. Brandontoddcarr (talk) 13:48, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

Feels like this has been discussed before. Consensus can change and all that, but it's almost to the point of needing an FAQ as to why it isn't included, especially when two of those discussions are still on this talk page. Primefac (talk) 16:21, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

As per previous discussions above and in the archives, consensus is for having a simpler infobox without clutter and that the introduction is sufficient to summarize. Flibirigit (talk) 17:01, 27 December 2025 (UTC)

Remove bolding from "Ice hockey career" embedded title

The bolding should be removed from the "Ice hockey career" text seen when this module is embedded:

| title = {{#ifeq:{{{embed|}}}|yes|'''Ice hockey career'''}}

Brad (talk) 02:05, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

Why? Flibirigit (talk) 02:37, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

The extra bolding is not usual as seen in the demo on Wikipedia:WikiProject Infoboxes/embed. As an example, look at the bolded text in the Wyatt Russell infobox, and compare it with the non-bolded (standard) module titles as seen on e.g. Tracey Ullman ("Comedy career" and "Musical career"). See also MOS:INFOBOXSTYLE: "A good guideline is not to add extraneous style formatting over that in a default infobox without good reason." -- Brad (talk) 06:02, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

 Done. Primefac (talk) 14:08, 29 March 2026 (UTC)

honorific_suffix and honorific_prefix

{{infobox person}} and {{infobox sportsperson}} both have |honorific_suffix and |honorific_prefix. This template probably should as well, for consistency. Currently, Jonathan Toews' article use <br/> and {{post-nominals}}, which goes against MOS:NOBR. Snowman304|talk 01:14, 31 May 2026 (UTC)

You’ve been gatekeeping this for 20+ years

The infobox looks like trash. Face it already. It might make sense to the 7 or 8 of you who keep using some obscure policy or rule to backup this arbitrary line in the sand, but the fact of the matter is that NHL and hockey player pages are ugly to look at to the casual or newer fan. Literally every other professional sport is well into the 21st century with its presentation and accessibility to fans with information, why can’t hockey? And unsurprisingly, the ratings have been worse over the last 20+ years compared to them.

I’m not going to list specific reasons as to why the infoboxes are ugly and need to be improved. The lot of you against this clearly have heard them millions of times when citing some stupid reason to gatekeep the idea. But it’s nonetheless true. It’s actively infringing on the growth of the sport in bringing new fans and retaining casual fans. If you guys are cool with that, then by all means keep “🤓 well akshually”’ing the others that suggest to make improvements in good faith. Continue putting pedantry over the sport you allegedly love. ~2026-34882-05 (talk) 03:41, 15 June 2026 (UTC)

I mostly don't care what's in this infobox (primarily here for maintenance/upkeep purposes) but if you (or anyone else) have an issue with the template and feel like a small group of people is preventing needed improvements, create an RFC on the matter to get opinions from outside the group; don't just be angry, do something about it. Primefac (talk) 08:53, 17 June 2026 (UTC)

Someone already did an RFC and was shut down by the aforementioned group. Doing it the “proper” way doesn’t seem to be working. ~2026-35554-38 (talk) 01:50, 19 June 2026 (UTC)

Was it an RFC or just a request? I don't see any RFCs on this page (like... ever). If it was elsewhere, please link to it so that I will know for future reference. Primefac (talk) 11:43, 20 June 2026 (UTC)