"What's your source for the information on this site?  How accurate is it?"

Great questions.  Let's answer them, and a few others.

Where do I get my information?  Straight from the National Hockey League ... sort of.  It comes from a few people who have access to the salary and cap information that the league maintains; regardless of what any other place might say, my numbers exactly match the NHL's data.

A lot of people use media outlets like TSN.ca when they report contract figures ... and most of the time, those are correct.  Some people use the NHLPA website ... which is great - if the player's salary is the same as his cap number; often that's not the case, especially for players on multi-year contracts or entry-level contracts.  Some people even use reports from various blogs affiliated with NHL teams.  Sure, when contracts are initially announced, I'll might use those as well ... but eventually I always tie back to that file from the NHL. If published reports say a guy signed for 3 years, $5.8 million and that file says it's 3 years, $5.85 million, then I always go with the numbers in that file.  It may take a few days or a few weeks (depending on the availability of that information) ... but in the end I always match up with what the league is reporting.

How accurate is it?  If you assume that the NHL's data is correct (and who would allege it's not?), then the only question in my accuracy is whether or not I carried the data over correctly - and I've worked on methods to improve this.  I maintain that for 99.9% of the salaries and cap numbers I have, it's exactly correct - for the other 0.1%, it's at least within $100 (and very likely within $20-50).  In other words, it's incredibly accurate - in my opinion and in the opinion of others who've looked around, it's the most accurate information you're going to find.

"So ... there's other places that I can find salary and cap information - why should I use your site?"

Here's why I think you should make this site the one you come back to when you want salary and cap information:

-- Sources?  As I explained above ... while I use media outlets early on, in the end everything reconciles to what the NHL has recorded.  I don't use anyone else's site to get my data.  Other places?  Yep, they use those other sources ... and when they can't find it, they turn to NHLSCAP.com to get the information they can't find anywhere else.

-- Accuracy?  As I said ... for 99.9% of the players out there, I show exactly what a player's salary and cap number are - not a rounded number, not a "I think this might be right, but I'm not really sure" guess.  Where there's information on the salary cap and the CBA, I've provided detailed explanations, complete with examples so that you can better understand how everything works and fits together.

-- A daily breakdown of where teams stood with respect to the cap?  No one else had that until it was posted at the old Geocities site.  No one, and no one else gives you that information down to the last dollar.  On February 26, 2008 when the trade deadline rolls around?  No one else will be keeping you up to date on the cap situation as trades are announced, so you know exactly what it means for all 30 teams and know who's in and who's out of the bidding for certain players.

-- Specific information on a player's contract?  Again, I was the first one to show who was on a 2-way contract and who was (and wasn't) exempt from waivers.  You still can't find the first part on a lot of other sites; you can't find the second part on any other site.  This is also still the only site where you can find a complete breakdown by year for every player who has performance bonuses in his contract.

-- Sure, eventually teams will announce that they've signed a guy ... but when they don't?  NHLSCAP.com was the first to report the contract extension of Kirk Maltby; it broke the signing of guys like Igor Grigorenko and Artem Anisimov before anyone, and it's consistently been able to give details on entry-level contract players well before anyone else has.

-- A complete list of players signed to an NHL contract?  No one else has these.  No one.

-- Information on exactly how the cap works?  You won't find a complete description of the various aspects of the salary cap anywhere else.

-- Information on various aspects of the CBA?  Sure, there's other places that try to give you this information ... but based on what I've seen, a lot of those places are somewhere between somewhat wrong and incredibly wrong.

-- Future information?  I've already added pages to explain how offer sheets and waivers work, clear up the mystery of Keith Primeau, give a preliminary idea of who's on the FA market for 2008, and updated and clarified a few things on the Cap FAQ page ... and there's pages on free agency, entry-level contracts, and more coming between now and July 1, 2008.  Down the road?  There's a page that explains revenue sharing in an easy-to-understand manner in the works, and plans to provide more information on player contracts and an easier way to see it all.