In yesterday’s Carolina Hurricanes blog, I put up a series of 3 polls asking Canes fans who the team should target this summer. People voted on both who SHOULD the Canes target at goalie and who WILL the team add at goalie. The results were striking. As of writing this post, Cam Ward rated seventh out of 9 players with only 6 percent of votes for who SHOULD the Canes target. But he rated first with a whopping 39 percent for who WILL the team add. Basically, Canes fans prefer many other options over Cam Ward but largely expect that he will return anyway.
The last player remaining from 2006 Stanley Cup championship
Carolina Hurricanes fans have already been through 1 emotional round of will he stay or will he go with Eric Staal at the trade deadline. Despite the fact that his departure had been a distinct possibility for months and was not really a surprise, it was still a complete shock to the system for Canes fans who had watched him grow from being a gangly 18-year old kid to a man with a wife and children. Assuming that Eric Staal does not return this summer, that leaves Cam Ward as the last man standing from the 2006 Stanley Cup team. And it leaves only Cam Ward as a holdover from the most recent era in Canes history.
Rational evaluation of available goalies
Usually, hockey personnel decisions are driven largely by rational evaluations of players’ pros, cons, contract situations, statistics, etc. In that regard, I think Ward could stack up okay if he is willing to play for a 1A/1B type price ($2.5 – 3 million/year). I think there are better players out there, but many of them would require a trade to be acquired first and then there is the issue of salary and term. There is a rational argument that says for the right price and term, Ward is a reasonable option to hopefully build a bridge the reaches to when Alex Nedeljkovic could be ready. That especially becomes true if the potential expansion draft does not shake loose extra goalies from teams with 2. In such a scenario, the free agent market is incredibly thin with only James Reimer, Chad Johnson and Cam Ward as potential #1s in my mind.
But bigger picture…Is it just time to move on?
The poll questions in yesterday’s post did not ask for reason for not wanting Cam Ward to return. It could be that it is simply because there are better options available in the rational assessment angle. But from talking to enough Canes fans, I think there is also an element of just being ready to start a new era for many fans. The sample size is not statistically valid, but I had exactly that conversation with 3 different Hurricanes fans today.
I think that is where I stand at this point. Cam Ward has been a class act as a player and person in every regard over the past 10 years. He has earned his rightful place in Hurricanes history. But with the team getting younger and with a run of 7 consecutive playoff misses, I think it is time to turn the page and start a new chapter in Carolina Hurricanes history.
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It will be interesting to see how Canes GM Ron Francis resolves this situation.
Go Canes!
I voted to move forward. I could see Ward coming back for two reasons. One, he accepts a large salary cut. Two, RF decides that Cam’s performance over the last half of last season reflects that he is a capable goalie when provided a decent (very good) defense corps in front of him and he fits with the puck possession style of play. I will accept RF’s judgement, whatever it is on this issue and live with the results as he knows more hockey than I and has his plan I am sure.
My real concern will be if he retains Ward one of two negative things might happen. One, the fans will not be as energized for the coming season as if the team had a new face in goal resulting in lower season ticket sales. Two,the team starts off slowly no matter what the reason. Then a large part of the fan base may just call it quits on this team with the resigning of Ward being the prime reason for their dissatisfaction.
My last comment, based upon the above, why Ward? Is he better than Chad Johnson, Reimer and all the other free agents and other available candidates? If he is not, why even consider resigning him? If he is, why wouldn’t we resign him? We want the best goalie available, don’t we?
It’s not even close, there are several better options than Cam! As a b/u goalie he would be only adequate, slightly better than Lack… If RF can get us one of the best, then this team will be MUCH better.
One other goalie issue is that the Canes still have the same goalie coach that has coached Cam to mediocrity for years and has managed to take two NHL #2 goalies with potential (Khudobin and Lack) and convert them to what looks like decent AHL goalies. While the goalie quality may not have been what was really wanted, these goalies still had the talent to warrant at least being a really good #2. Any goalie coming in is still going to be exposed to the same level of mediocre goalie coaching.
Will be interesting to see what happens with David Marcoux.
His short track record is not good. Coming off a .926/2.30 season in 2013-14, Khudobin’s stats ballooned to .900/2.72 in Marcoux’s first season in Raleigh in 2014-15. In 2015-16, we saw Eddie Lack clearly struggle mightily trying to make adjustments under Marcoux. Even after seemingly scrapping that plan and going solo at some point, Lack went from .921/2.45 in 2014-15 to .901/2.81.
There are obviously many variables that go into goalie play, but especially after the Lack situation this season, I have seen enough that I would try someone other than Marcoux for 2016-17.
For any other team, Ward is a good backup goalie if being paid in the $2 – $2.5 range. The problem is the Canes need a #1 goalie, and not just a barely capable #1 but a legitimate stud goalie. I’d like to see the Canes trade for someone like Marc-Andre Fleury who should have a good 3-5 years left. The problem is the Canes are a small market team and over paying for an average goalie (Ward’s insane expired contract) destroys the ability to build out the rest of the team with quality, experienced players. Draft picks and young players are great, but you need experience as well.
While I agree that Cam is adequate as a B/U guy, this team needs a
HUGE upgrade starter! Regardless with what they do with Lack, the only way this team can improve and Excelllllll is to get a STUD G… Bishop, Elliot, Andersen, Vasilevsky, Allen, and maybe Fleury might fill the bill. I hope we don’t settle for mediocre AGAIN!