Quite simply THE undisputed reference when it comes to NHL player contracts and salary cap calculation. How many tens of millions will the new Utah team have when the free agent market opens? How much money does the Canadian still have to pay Carey Price? How much would it cost to buy out Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s contract from the Carolina Hurricanes? All this information is available in just a few clicks thanks to this site created in 2016, and which has never stopped evolving since. In addition to using data made public, its administrators are in constant communication with teams and agents so that the information published is accurate. Let us insist: a reference.

Everyone. Curious fans, the most dedicated poolers, journalists… and NHL team managers. Even though the League provides all necessary salary cap data to organizations on a daily basis through a secure platform, general managers make no secret of the fact that they love consulting CapFriendly, often several times a day, if only for due to its ease of use. We understand, by speaking with certain managers, that the interactivity and interface of the site make its use much more pleasant than the tools provided by the League. Never mind, contrary to certain alarmist rumors published on social networks, the loss of CapFriendly “will not be a problem”, a manager writes to us. Several clubs, for example, have already developed internal data processing systems.

All kinds of interpretations of the news have been circulating in recent days, including that the Capitals bought CapFriendly strictly to shut it down. This is incorrect. In a press release released Wednesday morning, the organization explained that it had acquired the platform, “including its tools and functionalities,” in order to integrate it into its daily hockey operations. The site will remain active until the transaction is completed in early July, after the free agent market opens. The organization also hired Jamie Davis, co-founder of the site, as well as his brothers Ryan and Christopher Davis, who had previously worked with him. The press release, however, says nothing about Montrealer Dominik Zrim, another co-founder. The latter did not call us back.

The NHL has not officially reacted to this acquisition, but it is safe to assume that Gary Bettman will not cry tears of his body to see him disappear from the information superhighway. Sportsnet journalist Elliotte Friedman recalled earlier this week that the NHL commissioner, historically, is of the opinion that players’ salaries and the structure of their contracts are not in the public interest. In 2015, he felt that it was not information that excited the public, recalled the Toronto Star on Tuesday. “I’ve often heard that the relationship is cold between the League and CapFriendly,” Friedman said on his 32 Thoughts podcast. Has Bettman changed his mind over the years? Good question. What is certain is that the emotion is real among the supporters of 2024. Some journalists from La Presse are also inconsolable.

This is not the first time that the hockey world has had to experience the loss of a reference site in this niche, a very specific one it is true. On its own site, CapFriendly claims to see itself as the successor to CapGeek, which unfortunately had to cease operations in 2015 due to the health problems of its founder, Matthew Wuest. Now deceased, the New Brunswicker is still seen as a pioneer in the aggregation of NHL salary information. Moving forward, the PuckPedia site is essentially the successor to CapFriendly. Although the navigation is not as smooth, the information is more or less the same, with the addition of some new features. You might as well take advantage of it, before another NHL team makes its creators an offer they won’t be able to refuse…