After nine years of helping Ottawa Senator fans (and media) eliminate all the salary cap and contractual guesswork, CapFriendly.com is now officially closed to the public.
There was a time when NHL fans didn't give a single thought to contracts and money. When their favourite team made a trade, they based their opinion on the talent level of the players involved, like kids swapping hockey cards at recess.
But times change. Today, you can't properly analyze a single NHL decision or idea without knowing a team's cap situation or the player's contract terms. Who has time to track all of that for every player in the league?
CapFriendly.com did, and they made a business out of their site. It was a handy resource for fans and media alike to track the complicated business side of hockey.
How many years does Josh Norris have left on his deal?
Do the Senators have cap room to sign anyone else this summer?
Is Tyler Kleven waiver-exempt this fall or not?
CapFriendly allowed us all to come off as experts on NHL questions like these. But the site shut down to the public today after the Washington Capitals agreed to purchase the website last month.
Some NHL teams had individual agreements with CapFriendly to use some of the website's tools and were informed those deals would be terminated.
This was the Capitals statement:
“We anticipate that this acquisition will significantly enhance and integrate the various branches of our hockey operations department, allowing us to strengthen our management, scouting, analytics and player development, and augmenting our salary cap and contractual applications.”
One of the sites that will step into the breach is PuckPedia.com, a trusted partner of The Hockey News since last year. For Sens team and player info, be sure to bookmark PuckPedia.com/team/ottawa-senators.
This was the farewell statement on the CapFriendly site today:
"After 9 years of late nights, early mornings, missed holidays and family events while diligently updating the website and developing tools, the CapFriendly team has made the decision to begin a new chapter and challenge! We couldn’t be more thankful for the support and interest in CapFriendly our fans have shown over the years."
Their affiliate site, SalarySwish.com, devoted to the NBA, will continue as usual.