Alternative Salary Cap Website After Cap Friendly Goes Dark

One of the best resources available to fans and teams will no longer be available, as Elliotte Friedman is reporting that Cap Friendly, a website founded by Ottawa natives, as well as a Montrealer, has been sold to the Washington Capitals.

They will allow NHL teams, the vast majority of whom have contracts with the website, to use the website until the upcoming draft, not to mention the opening of free agency, after which it will permanently go dark.

Those familiar with our work on Montreal Hockey Now are well aware of how often we referenced this fantastic resource. As recently as Saturday, we published an updated breakdown of the Montreal Canadiens’ salary cap situation heading into the summer with the use of Cap Friendly’s excellent Armchair GM feature.

There’s no denying it, we’re losing one of the best hockey-related websites out there.

But we also have to acknowledge that Cap Friendly has achieved what many in the industry dream of: job security and financial stability. It would be rather intellectually dishonest to ignore how much work the team at Cap Friendly has done in the last few years, especially since their hard work lead to an accurate, well-designed, and most importantly, free website that fans and teams around the NHL referenced ad nauseam.

We’re losing a great resource, and yet it’s also fair to say we were lucky to have access to the information for as long as we did.

It should also be noted that while some are criticizing the Capitals, it’s surprising it took this long for a team to make a healthy offer for the company, seeing as it has become a vital part of every NHL organization.

Now that the Capitals own the website, it only makes sense that they no longer want their competition to have access to the crucial information. Such is life in a capitalism.

The NHL could have bought the website and kept the information free, while also helping all 32 of the teams in the league, but as we all know, foresight is not exactly the NHL’s strong point.

Going Forward

There is an alternative in place already.

Puck Pedia has accurate information for every team, and contains in-depth explanations for many of the intricate details involved in the collective bargaining agreement.

The Armchair GM option is not available, but it certainly provides enough information for both pundits and fans alike to keep up to date with all the contracts and salary cap hits in the NHL.