Do You Have a Cap Geek In You?

One of the things that we like to do around here is give some other hockey websites some love. There are a ton of sites out there—some are good and some are worse than Jason LaBarbara in a shootout. Since no one wants to have to endure that kind of suck, we’re here to help weed out the sites that are a waste of time. Usually we’re talking about hockey writers or blogs; but today we’re going to go in a bit of a different direction. If you’re an NHL geek and you want to know anything and everything about your team and its players’ contracts, you really should check out CapGeek.com.

Let me first explain that I have nothing to do with the site and I have nothing to gain from pimping their cause. I have found that in the last couple of months, whenever I have a question about a salary—CapGeek.com is the first place I go. They do one thing and they do it damn well.

Here’s how they describe themselves on their Home Page:

“CapGeek.com was created to give fans a one-stop shop for NHL salary cap information and easy cap crunching.”

Normally I sit back and laugh when I hear a website try to explain what they do—and laugh even harder when they throw out mission statements that are either overly ambitious or blatantly wrong. But in this case, I couldn’t have put it better myself. They don’t get into players stats, trade rumors or even the players’ personal lives. It’s all about hockey salaries and how they affect their teams. That’s it. But its beauty is in its simplicity. I know what I’m going to get when I visit the site.

There are the normal things that you’ll be curious about from time to time like: how many more years on Martin Erat’s contract? How much money did the Maple Leafs spend on defensemen this offseason? How many more years are the Kings going to have Alyn McCauley and Dan Cloutier counting against the salary cap? When you follow your team and you want to know how much money your team has to play with, these are all pretty logical questions.

But if that was all it offered, the site would be called CapCasualFan.com. It has much more to offer the inner geek in you (let’s face it, we all have an inner geek). Do you want to know if the guys on your team are still on their entry level contract? Do you want to know if they are on a two-way contract and don’t have to clear waivers? Hell, do you want to know if they signed their contract over the age of 35 (so when they retire their salary still counts against the cap)? All of that information is at your fingertips as well.

There’s a feature that you can adjust the salary cap down for next season to any amount you want. There’s a trade calculator so you can figure out how any trades would affect your team going forward. I’m confident that if Dale Tallon had used the “Cap Crunch,” the Blackhawks wouldn’t be in their predicament next season!

They have a few other features as well. If you’re not happy with a player on your team, they have both a Waiver Calculator and a Buyout Calculator. Thank about when Patrick Kane had his legal issues this year. What if it was a little more serious than just a minor assault and robbery? Say the Blackhawks might have to waive Patrick Kane. Well, they have a Waiver Calculator that you can use for any player in the entire league. Conveniently, it’s linked to The Hockey Database for any stats you may need to figure out the Waiver status.

If you’ve never been to the site, do yourself a favor and go check it out. It might not be the most exciting hockey site on the internet—but it might be the most useful. Well, besides View From My Seats.