Capitals to shut down one of hockey's most popular websites.
The Washington Capitals have purchased one of the most popular websites in the sport of hockey.
I unfortunately have some pretty crappy news to share with you today hockey fans, news that is likely to make the Washington Capitals decidedly more unpopular around the National Hockey League today that they were yesterday.
A stunning report from National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman has revealed that the Washington Capitals not only intend to purchase popular website CapFriendly, but will be shutting down the website as well. This is of course terrible news for hockey fans who are interested in keeping track of player salaries, pending free agents, team salary cap limits, players on long term injured reserve, and many, many other features provided by what is legitimately a great resource for hockey information.
There are several teams around the National Hockey League who use CapFriendly's services on a professional level as well, and those teams have been informed that their existing contracts with the company will be terminated following the sale.
From the outside looking in this seems very much like a bid on the part of the Washington Capitals to maximize a competitive advantage over their rival teams in the league, but unfortunately this time it is also coming at the expense of the thousands of hockey fans who use CapFriendly's website on a regardless basis.
For anyone looking for a silver lining here, we have seen this happen before in the past. Long time fans will remember well that we once had a resource called CapGeek, a website that was in many ways the predecessor to websites like CapFriendly. CapGeek was shut down when its founder, Matthew Wuest, passed away in 2015.
It was the end of CapGeek that spawned a new beginning for websites like CapFriendly, and I suspect that the end of CapFriendly will usher in new platforms that will look to fill the admittedly large void that will be left by what is currently one of hockey's very best online resources.
The sale could be made official as early as July 5th, with the shutdown of the website expected to quickly follow.
