JUNE 29, 2008 - Effective today, NHLSCAP.com has entered into a 1-year agreement with Hockeybuzz.com to provide salary and cap information to Hockeybuzz, as well as other items still to be determined.  This will allow NHLSCAP to utilize the resources available from Hockeybuzz in order to provide even more accurate and detailed information than has been previously been available.

Before anyone starts complaining about this, let me state a few things up front:

1. The salary and cap information is still under the control of NHLSCAP.  This will not change - the accuracy of the data here is paramount and will never be compromised; however, Hockeybuzz is more than Eklund and has many knowledgable people there ... and there are several resources available that I previously have not had.

2. Changes to the data will never be based on rumors.  They never have - one thing I've been steadfast about from the beginning is that I don't make a change until it's confirmed by a major media outlet, and I don't post actual numbers unless I know those are correct; otherwise, I've always indicated it's an estimated number until I have the real numbers.  That won't change - I won't change a player's data until I know it's a fact, and I will never change data because "someone is rumored to Waunakee (e4)."

3. This really is a good thing.  If you enjoyed the content here and liked how everything was presented clearly, you'll enjoy it even more at Hockeybuzz - there's many things I've wanted to do but have never had time to do or didn't have the knowledge to pull off; going forward, I'll be working with HB's programmers to add in those goodies that I think would make the information here even more valuable.  That means even more content and even more options - all of which will go beyond what I've been able to provide here.  If on the other hand you've wished that the presentation here could have been more clear and have been waiting to see that, you should get your wish.

4. This will be a time-saver for me.  Over the last 3 years both here and at the former Geocities site, I spent a lot of time maintaining things, setting up pages, and trying to find easier ways to make updates - and did it all at my expense.  I won't have to worry about that now - the updating will be done automatically, all I'll have to do is go in and say, "does this make sense?" and make changes to the data as needed.

What this means for this site:

1. The salary and cap pages and the free agent pages will be discontinued.  This should be self-evident - why duplicate efforts?  Over the next 7-10 days, I'll adjust links here to point to the correct pages, as both of these are up and working.

2. Some of the other information will gradually shift over to Hockeybuzz.  We're still working on details here, but nothing is imminent - if/when things are moved over, I'll post an announcement here at least 7 days in advance.

3. Data from past years will remain here.  I'll actually try to get this standardized into one format, because I know I laid out the spreadsheet for '05-06 is different from '06-07 [and '07-08 is different from both of these] and that information is not scheduled to be carried over.

4. NHLSCAP should become an even better source for salary and cap information.  That's been the goal since I started doing this in November, 2005 - create a source that is without question the premier place for people to go to get all the information they need on the NHL's salary cap system.  I've already seen what we've put together thus far and what we're working on, and I can safely say that what we've got and what's coming will blow away what I've put together here in the past.

I'll still be here for questions and comments - but will be able to respond a little quicker and can take some of the recommendations and possibly get those implemented to improve the look of the data that I have.