BHN Daily: NHL Salary Cap Going Up, CapFriendly Going Down

There was a lot of NHL salary cap talk over the weekend, with a big announcement from the league and a report about an important public resource. Gary Bettman confirmed Saturday that the league’s salary cap is increasing to $88 million next season, a $4.5 million increase. The cap floor will be at $65 million. The increase is slightly higher than expected, as the projection was originally $87.7 million.

The Buffalo Sabres are projected to have about $23.5 million in cap space. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Peyton Krebs, Henri Jokiharju, Jacob Bryson, and Kale Clague are restricted free agents. The Sabres will also have four forward spots to fill by promoting prospects, signing free agents, or via trade.

As for the report, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman broke the news Sunday that the Washington Capitals are acquiring the popular cap resource site CapFriendly. The sale will result in the website going dark to the public. Also, the move will terminate any previous agreements with other NHL teams.

CapFriendly’s API, or Application Programming Interface, was sourced to many NHL teams and other private and public hockey resources. It served as a central source of information regarding contracts, roster moves, and salary cap management. The Capitals will now have exclusive access to the data and are expected to employ the website’s co-owner and director, Dominik Zrim.

As per Friedman, the site will remain publicly accessible to the public through the NHL draft and the start of free agency. A transition to private status is expected around July 5th.

As for an alternative, PuckPedia.com is another great resource for cap concerns and other information.

The Latest at Buffalo Hockey Now

The “Behind The Scenes” series has begun. I pull back the curtain on my experience as a Buffalo Sabres beat reporter. The initial piece starts with my first and second days on the job, which were a whirlwind, to say the least.

This is a BHN+ exclusive, so be sure to subscribe and enjoy an ad-free experience with BHN on top of unique articles you won’t find anywhere. Sign up using the code Jason10 for 10% of your yearly subscription at checkout.

The Stanley Cup Final continues tonight with Game Two in Florida. Three of the six former Sabres in the Final already registered points in the series. I ranked all six of their projected series impact here.

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