I certainly don't blame them either for selling. It is a bit embarrassing I suppose for the Caps to have to go out and purchase something presumed to be inferior to what they had in-house. Their own fans will now not have access either.
On the other hand, I love when opportunities present themselves for creators who toil in relative obscurity for so long. It's a great recognition and reward for those folks and their hard work. As much as I thoroughly enjoy your Substack, I would be thrilled if you were similarly able to make the jump.
Neil, any thoughts or reactions to the Washington Capitals purchase of the CapFriendly site? This strikes me as an under-reported story with potential future impacts.
In particular, what do you think this says about their and other front offices (it was rumored that other clubs were bidding too), the potential depletion by teams of previously available analysis and the potential opportunities for the analytics community such as yourself?
It's kind of a bummer, but I don't blame CapFriendly for selling. (I'd do the same thing!) The online hockey community has regrouped through this type of thing before, though. CapFriendly was actually a replacement for CapGeek, which shut down when the guy who ran it got terminal cancer, sadly. And there were a lot of other sites that shut down during the NHL's "summer of analytics", during which a bunch of public analysts got hired by teams and shuttered their sites/work.
(This is how Eric Tulsky joined an NHL front office after writing for FiveThirtyEight, making him the only future GM I ever edited as a writer, LOL.)
So I have no doubt the community will create a new CapFriendly replacement ASAP. Will it be as good? No, not at first. But CapFriendly wasn't as good as CapGeek, either, until a few years went by.
I certainly don't blame them either for selling. It is a bit embarrassing I suppose for the Caps to have to go out and purchase something presumed to be inferior to what they had in-house. Their own fans will now not have access either.
On the other hand, I love when opportunities present themselves for creators who toil in relative obscurity for so long. It's a great recognition and reward for those folks and their hard work. As much as I thoroughly enjoy your Substack, I would be thrilled if you were similarly able to make the jump.
Thanks for the quick response.
Neil, any thoughts or reactions to the Washington Capitals purchase of the CapFriendly site? This strikes me as an under-reported story with potential future impacts.
In particular, what do you think this says about their and other front offices (it was rumored that other clubs were bidding too), the potential depletion by teams of previously available analysis and the potential opportunities for the analytics community such as yourself?
Thanks as always.
It's kind of a bummer, but I don't blame CapFriendly for selling. (I'd do the same thing!) The online hockey community has regrouped through this type of thing before, though. CapFriendly was actually a replacement for CapGeek, which shut down when the guy who ran it got terminal cancer, sadly. And there were a lot of other sites that shut down during the NHL's "summer of analytics", during which a bunch of public analysts got hired by teams and shuttered their sites/work.
(This is how Eric Tulsky joined an NHL front office after writing for FiveThirtyEight, making him the only future GM I ever edited as a writer, LOL.)
So I have no doubt the community will create a new CapFriendly replacement ASAP. Will it be as good? No, not at first. But CapFriendly wasn't as good as CapGeek, either, until a few years went by.