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Sunny Mehta helped the Devils start the first full-time analytics department in the N.H.L. last year. “This is a dream job,’’ he said.Credit Richard Perry/The New York Times

Sunny Mehta has been a musician, a professional poker player and an author, and he has worked in finance. He has lived in New Orleans, Chicago, Miami and Las Vegas.

But through it all, one constant has remained: his love for the Devils.

So when the owners of the Devils, Josh Harris and David Blitzer, wanted to start the N.H.L.’s first full-time analytics department last year, Mehta made sense as its director.

N.H.L. training camps are opening this weekend, and more analytics departments have sprouted around the league as teams embrace advanced statistics. Mehta will look to find every edge for the Devils, who are projected by many to be one of the N.H.L.’s worst teams in the 2015-16 season. In his second year as the organization’s analytics director, Mehta finds himself in a more collaborative and forward-thinking environment than he did in his first season.

“It’s been an interesting year,” Mehta, 37, said. “This is a dream job. It’s exciting to be part of the decision making.”

A native of Wyckoff, N.J., Mehta went to the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music as a jazz guitarist and caught on as a musician in New Orleans in the early 2000s. He taught himself poker there and made money on the side playing at casinos. He has written two books on poker.

After Hurricane Katrina, Mehta left for Las Vegas to play poker full time. He lasted six months before heading back to New Orleans, and he spent the next five years playing poker.

In 2011, Matthew Hulsizer, a prospective owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, was looking for analytics consultants for the team and approached a group that included Mehta.

Mehta had become something of a big fish in a small, online-based analytics pond. Among his friends are Tyler Dellow, a former lawyer and analytics columnist at Canada’s Rogers Sportsnet, whom the Edmonton Oilers hired last year as an analytics consultant; and Tim Barnes, also known as Vic Ferrari in hockey analytics circles.

Barnes, now an analytics consultant for the Washington Capitals, is considered the father of the stat Corsi, which is named after the goalie coach Jim Corsi and tracks each team’s and player’s shot attempts, for and against. Corsi has become a go-to statistic among fans and the hockey news media.

Hulsizer’s bid to buy the Coyotes fell through, but he liked Mehta enough to hire him to work for Peak6, an options trading company based in Chicago. Mehta spent three years there before a recruiter called him in to interview for the Devils’ newly formed analytics department.

Mehta endured a rigorous interview process as Harris, Blitzer and Lou Lamoriello, the former general manager, peppered him with questions. Out of a pool of roughly 500, Mehta got the job as analytics director — the first such full-time role on any N.H.L. team.

He might seem an odd choice for a hockey front-office member, but in his mind, hockey, poker and finance have common elements: They are all about predicting success rates. His passion for the Devils runs deep. He recalled emptying his bank account to buy a flight and ticket to watch the Devils win the Stanley Cup over the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 2003.

“If it were any of the other 29 teams, I’d still be in Chicago,” Mehta said, referring to his job in options trading. “It was the Devils. I had to check it out.”

Blitzer and Harris are committed to the analytics, which is why the Devils also gave Mehta an assistant, Sai Okabayashi, whose official title is data scientist. The team intends to add to the department down the road.

In May, Lamoriello stepped back from the G.M. role, hiring Ray Shero. After 28 years with the Devils, Lamoriello departed to become the Toronto Maple Leafs’ general manager in July.

As Shero has taken over the organization’s reins, Mehta has seen a more streamlined approach. Mehta has become more involved in the decision-making process under the new administration. He watches video and compiles data to help the Devils make decisions about player acquisitions and usage.

“It’s getting better, maybe not every day, but every month or every week in terms of the league,” Shero said, referring to analytics. “We’re going to throw a lot of things by these guys. I think a lot of teams are doing that, so I don’t think we’re ahead of it, but you certainly don’t want to be behind on it.”

When asked what he looked for specifically, Mehta said, “I’m looking for players who will help us win.”

Still, the Devils are coming off their worst 82-game point total since 1988-89, and they have missed the playoffs three straight seasons. That streak seems destined to reach four — the Metropolitan Division has improved, and Shero has enacted a rebuilding plan.

Mehta understands why many predict the Devils to finish near the bottom of the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference standings. But he warned predictors of one overlooked fact.

“Never underestimate the randomness of hockey,” he said. “It’s not impossible that we exceed expectations.”