According to Elliotte Friedman, the Washington Capitals will be purchasing the hockey salary cap website CapFriendly. He wrote in his Sportsnet.ca article, “It won’t happen until July, but according to multiple sources, the Washington Capitals have reached an agreement to purchase the outstanding CapFriendly website.”
The reason that the official sale of the website to the franchise will not be done until a little bit into July, is so that the public can use the website for the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, as well as free agency. Friedman pointed out how important that was for both sides of this deal. He wrote, “These same sources stressed that both the Capitals and CapFriendly wanted the site to be publicly available and independently operated through the 2024 NHL Draft and the start of free agency, so it is not expected the sale will be official until at least July 5.” The 2024 Draft takes place between June 28 and 29, while the start of free agency occurs on July 1. It will be the last time that hockey fans and teams will have access.
The site has been used by so many people during its time on the internet. It has been a way to keep track of teams’ salary cap situation, as well as be a substantial resource to know what salaries players around the NHL were making and whether they had certain perks in their contracts like no-trade clauses (NTC) and no-movement clauses (NMC). For example, anyone could use CapFriendly to see what Alex Ovechkin’s contract looks like. It is the same with Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, and all players in the league. People could see how much cap space was available to think about possible additions via trade or in free agency. It was a useful tool.
There was writing on the wall for this, as Friedman mentions, “NHL teams that had agreements to use their tools/Application Programming Interface (API) recently received notice that these contracts would be terminated. This led to speculation that one club was buying the site, and all information pointed to the Capitals…After the transaction officially closes, the website will go dark.”
Caps Buying Advantage
The goal, as mentioned in the Sports Illustrated article, “Capitals to Purchase CapFriendly Website After 2024 NHL Draft, per Report,” is to keep other clubs from using the various information that CapFriendly has to offer. The article, written by Karl Rasmussen, says, “Once the purchase is made official, it’s expected that Washington will bring the site offline, preventing other teams from utilizing its extensive database.”
There has already been discussion about finding alternatives to CapFriendly, which has been around for almost a decade, and at least one site was mentioned as a possible replacement once CapFriendly closes. It is called PuckPedia and it may be the perfect website to take over in CapFriendly’s absence. The hockey world will adapt as it always does. CapFriendly itself had been a replacement for another hockey salary cap website called CapGeek. Friedman explains how, once CapGeek was no more, CapFriendly became the place to go and find contract information. He wrote, “CapFriendly arrived in 2015, after its predecessor, CapGeek, closed. CapGeek’s creator, Matthew Wuest, who built an indispensable site, died of colon cancer in March 2015. CapFriendly became an excellent substitute for fans and media.”
While this is surprising news that an NHL team is buying a site like CapFriendly, it is a strategic move that the organization is using to their advantage. Hockey fans may not like it, and being disappointed is a fair way to feel after being able to use their capabilities for a long time, but the Capitals are making a smart move on their part to improve their hockey operations. Caps fans will probably see the benefits of the franchise’s management having those capabilities for themselves to use before everyone knows it. They are trying to give themselves a unique advantage, and with how much CapFriendly was appreciated, they are making a significant purchase. Rob Rossi from The New York Times explains details of how this will work for the D.C. team. He wrote, “CapFriendly will live internally with the Capitals, who anticipate growth in similar capacities to augment analytics, scouting and player development” (From ‘Capitals to purchase popular salary cap website CapFriendly: Source,’ The New York Times, June 9, 2024).
Related: NHL Sets 2024-25 Salary Cap at $88 Million
Rossi also wrote, “As part of the agreement, CapFriendly’s tools and functions will become part of the Capitals’ in-house hockey operations in early- or mid-July.” The Caps were supposedly not the only NHL team who had interest in buying the website. In the end, though, Washington is the organization that walks away the winner of the purchase. It is a smart move that should work wonders for the hockey department at Capital One Arena. It is just one more asset the team can use to try and get back to the top of the mountain and hoist the Stanley Cup once again.
Until the time comes, CapFriendly continues to be around for public access. As mentioned earlier, PuckPedia appears to be the next hockey salary cap replacement site. Time will tell on that front. Then, in July, the Capitals will have some exclusive tools to try and make the on-ice product better. It will be interesting to see how they use it to their advantage.
