Random NHL thoughts: The NHL's fight against salary information; Patrik Laine's future

Catching up on some things.

There is an interesting story in the NHL right now following the Washington Capitals decision purchase the CapFriendly website, taking all of that information and using it for their own internal use.

If you are unfamiliar: CapFriendly is an NHL salary website (started by fans) that keeps a complete archive of every contract in the league, complete with salary information, salary cap information, no-trade and no-movement clauses and everything else that could possibly do with the financial and salary side of the league.

For fans that care about that stuff, it is an invaluable resource. The same extends to *ahem* hockey writers that are trying to figure out if a trade or signing is possible, who needs to dump salary, who needs to add salary, and who would need to okay a potential trade.

It is also apparently an invaluable asset to the team’s in the NHL themselves as evidence by the fact the Capitals thought highly enough of it to buy it (and hire the people running it), while other teams are reportedly scrambling because they have no other access to this information. It was reported this week that nearly 70 percent of the teams in the league have no internal salary cap infrastructure.

The Capitals purchasing an already existing website and system means they do not have to waste time or money developing their own. It sucks for us as fans, but I don’t blame them one bit. Especially if it — even briefly — inconveniences their rivals.

The latter part of that is a staggering statement, because how does the NHL not have that information available to their teams?

And how do teams themselves not have this?

And the answer to that is very simple — the NHL doesn’t feel it should be in that business, and that it is strictly a team issue to worry about.

That mindset extends to the main point I am going to make here.

The NHL doesn’t want YOU (or any of us) knowing the salary information of their players.

It does not want you knowing the salary cap information for teams or their standing.

And that is, quite frankly, some stupid bullshit.