Capitals to buy popular salary cap site CapFriendly: Source

CapFriendly, a popular site that tracks salary cap information for NHL clubs, has been acquired by the Washington Capitals, a source familiar with the negotiations confirmed Sunday.

It was Canada’s Sportsnet First to report The impending deal.

In order to close the deal with the Capitals, CapFriendly will need to end arrangements with several clubs that have purchased the site’s application programming interface (API) which has been in place for several years, sources said.

As part of the agreement, CapFriendly’s tools and functionality will become part of the Capitals’ internal hockey operations in early or mid-July, said the source, who was granted anonymity but is not permitted to speak publicly about the deal.

CapFriendly will operate independently through the NHL Draft and July 1, the first day of free agency. Once the deal closes, CapFriendly will disappear, the source said.

CapFriendly will live internally with the Capitals, who expect to grow in similar capabilities to increase analytics, scouting and player development, the source said.

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

CapFriendly debuted in 2015 in the wake of CapGeek’s shutdown. It quickly became a go-to resource for fans and the hockey media, tracking not only club international match statuses, but also individual player statuses. The site tracks signings, deals and any employees as they relate to the cap.

While clubs have specific staff dedicated to tracking their and other players’ cases internally, CapFriendly’s information has generally been viewed as the industry standard in terms of up-to-date information.

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

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