Capitals to purchase popular salary cap website CapFriendly

CapFriendly, a popular site that tracks NHL clubs’ salary cap information, is being purchased by the Washington Capitals, a source briefed on the negotiations confirmed Sunday.

Canada’s Sportsnet was the first to report the impending transaction.

The sources said for the deal with the Capitals to close, CapFriendly will need to close arrangement with multiple clubs that have bought into the site’s API that have existed for several years.

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 source said, who was granted anonymity but is not permitted to speak publicly on the transaction.

CapFriendly will operate independently through the NHL Draft and on July 1, the first day of free agency. Once the transaction is closed, CapFriendly will go dark, the source said.

CapFriendly will live internally with the Capitals, who anticipate growth in similar capacities to augment analytics, scouting and player development, the source said.

Several NHL clubs were interested in buying CapFriendly, the source said, and another source familiar with talks the site’s owners held with other clubs.

CapFriendly debuted in 2015 in the wake of CapGeek’s shuttering. It quickly became a go-to resource for fans and hockey media, as it tracked not only clubs’ cap situations, but also those of individual players. The site tracked signings, trades, and any personnel as they related to the cap.

While clubs have specific employees dedicated to internally track their and others’ cap situations, CapFriendly’s information was generally viewed as the industry standard in terms of up-to-date information.

There are other cap-tracking sites, notably PuckPedia, which recently underwent a redesign and offers functions similar to that of CapFriendly.

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