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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Robert Zeglinski

Hockey fans trashed the NHL for wanting to keep salary cap info from CapFriendly confidential

The Washington Capitals’ purchase of salary cap information website CapFriendly has not been received well in NHL circles.

For one, many teams around the league actively used the data and infrastructure on the website to inform their team-building. Because of course they did — it’s a terrific and accessible resource. The same could be said of NHL fans, who enjoyed monitoring how their favorite squads were built from a financial standpoint. You know, bog-standard “how is my team going afford to Player A?” stuff that builds natural buzz and interest for free agency, trades, and the draft. There’s nothing quite like playing Couch General Manager as a diehard.

According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman in the latest 32 Thoughts Podcast, it gets worse. Now that the Capitals have made CapFriendly an official league entity, they couldn’t keep the website going in a different capacity even if they tried. Why?

The NHL apparently frowns upon websites like this as it considers salary cap dealings “proprietary information.”

What a profoundly stupid league run by absolute buffoons:

In this age of hyper-information, sports fans are obsessed with knowing the ins and outs of their favorite teams and sports. Having a conduit to salary cap information is just one way for people to deepen their bond with a team and league. Following cap dealings have effectively been normalized in most capacities, particularly with other leagues like the larger NFL and NBA.

Heck, for some people, it’s almost as fun as the actual games! It’s how most offseasons percolate, after all.

For the NHL to frown upon giving fans this kind of extremely basic access is just silly. It is the league once again missing the forest for the trees. In what realm of this universe does it make sense to consider salary cap dealings “proprietary information” that fans shouldn’t be allowed to have? I guess I was unaware that the NHL was a faceless corporation sending out non-compete job disclosures to its fans, not a league rooted in entertainment and public interest, first and foremost.

It’s worth noting that none of this likely comes to light without the Capitals’ purchase. If CapFriendly doesn’t become a league entity, we’re not even having this conversation. But it is now, and the aftermath has predictably made the NHL look absolutely witless. Again.

NHL fans were confounded by the league frowning upon salary cap information

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