TORONTO — The June announcement that CapFriendly would be shut down and sold to the Washington Capitals sent much of the hockey world into panic.
The website had become a much-loved tool for NHL media as well as fans around the world, so while it was understandable from the founder's perspective, the idea of it disappearing was disappointing.
For those of you who aren't familiar, here's a quick story to explain how much CapFriendly has become a part of the hockey world. A few years ago, I was interviewing an NHL general manager and he said he wanted to review the details of NHL player contracts. . So what did he do? I called CapFriendly on the phone. He had access to those details through the league, but it was easier to check CapFriendly.
That's right, the news of CapFriendly's demise has caused many to start looking for something new.
PuckPedia was already introduced as a reliable alternative. The Toronto-based technology entrepreneur believed he could build something that more fully filled CapFriendly's void while respecting that site. And he decided to take action.
asked Robert, 41. The Athletic We did not use his last name in this article because we wanted to protect his privacy. He launched CapWages in mid-June, just before CapFriendly shut down and NHL free agency on July 1st.
“Listen, they're doing a good job,” Robert said of Pacpedia, which offers player contract details and an array of features including a new waiver tracker. “I think we’re very fortunate that they exist and provide that service.”
But he thought he could create something that more directly reflected the layout that users were accustomed to with CapFriendly.
“I said, 'How hard would it be to build something like (CapFriendly) myself?' So I did it,” he said.
“Then July 1st came around and I almost died. After all, it's pretty hard.”
He said this while drinking his coffee and started laughing. The Athletic. Free agency was obviously quite a learning curve.
“We are a very small team, mostly me full-time and a few other people helping out,” he said.
However, cap wages grew rapidly.
“A week after CapFriendly closed, visitor numbers went from a few hundred to just under 10,000 per day,” says Robert.
The most obvious question, of course, is how can a technician with no hockey experience get NHL contract information at his fingertips?
“I had some agents reach out to me and they were very, very helpful,” he said. “We were on Twitter pretty early on, and we got a lot of attention on things like Reddit, and agents started reaching out to us.”
Of course, he doesn't go into details because he wants to protect his sources.
In short, it seems like those in the hockey world were eager for him to fill the Cap Friendly void, and CapWages did everything in their power to help them do so.
Robert works full time in the technology industry but is a huge hockey fan, so this is clearly a passion project.
“I have friends who are big hockey nerds. I have friends who are spreadsheet nerds. I'm kind of in between,” he said. “They don't really get along. They each think the other group is stupid. I kind of overlap with technology. I love data analysis and that aspect, but here I've been a huge hockey fan ever since I moved to .
He was born in Europe, moved to Toronto in 1995 and naturally became a Maple Leafs fan.
Were there any concerns about how the Capitals would react to CapWages going out of their way to look like CapFriendly? “Absolutely not,” he said. In his mind, what Caps was concerned about with that purchase was acquiring CapFriendly's knowledge, tools, know-how, and everyday applications. Not the site itself.
(The Caps hired Jamie, Ryan and Christopher Davis from Cap-Friendly as part of the acquisition, while the Oilers recently hired Cap-Friendly co-founder Dominic Zulim, who also worked with the Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks.) announced the employment of Mr.
Caps confirmed that there are no issues with cap wages.
“Our intent in acquiring CapFriendly and bringing on some of their staff was simply to strengthen our hockey operations department and infrastructure,” said Sergei Kocharov, Capitals senior vice president of communications. Ta. The Athletic on Thursday. “We are pleased and not surprised that another similar website is preparing to launch, as has happened in the past.”
right. Remember when CapFriendly replaced CapGeek? History repeats itself.
“The goal for me was to create something that I could basically use, similar to what I'm used to using,” Robert said. “The other thing was that I wanted to try out the technology out there, especially AI.”
There are still features missing from CapWages that were on CapFriendly. This is a work in progress. And Robert plans to integrate more AI software as the site grows.
“A lot of what I spend my time on is AI-related,” he said. “How can we understand what's going on and automatically extract this information so that it's easy to pull into our site?”
But AI is expensive. So at some point a decision will be made about how to finance it.
“The way we built the website makes a lot of sense to operate,” he said. “We can basically handle our current traffic with the donations we receive. The goal is to not run any ads if possible, but to not run any ads for as long as possible.”
Instead, there could be a subscription model with enhanced AI-powered features.
“Realistically, at some point we're going to have to fend for ourselves,” he says. “But whatever is at our disposal, we will do it.
“Essentially, everything on CapFriendly will remain free, but some of the enhancements we offer in the future, features that cost a lot of money, will require some kind of paywall.”
One of those features is expected to be introduced within the next week. It's an interactive tool that users find “very helpful,” according to Robert.
Long term, he has a different vision for the site. It's about helping NHL teams with their cap tools.
“Teams are going to want to have access to really good cap tools,” he said. “Long term, what we want to do is provide a service for these teams to use what we have internally so they can have their own version of CapWages. And they can also use their own data to do additional things: make predictions and run simulations.
“Basically, I'm willing to take this and offer it as a service to the team.”
The main site remains open to hockey fans.
The site still has a lot of work to do to realize its vision, not to mention compete with PuckPedia's slick site. So let's see what happens with CapWages.
But for those who missed CapFriendly, it was an encouraging start.
(Graphic: Meech Robinson / The Athletic, image from iStock)
