It appears Cam Ward, who has spent his entire career with the Carolina Hurricanes will be sticking around for at least two more years. The veteran goaltender was signed to a new two-year. $6.6 million contract extension by the club Thursday.
The new contract cuts Ward's most recent cap hit almost in half as he goes from $6.3 million to $3.3 million for 2016-17 and 2017-18. Though Ward was due to become an unrestricted free agent, it's unlikely he would have commanded much more than he got from Carolina due to his declining numbers.
The team has a number of roster spots to fill this year, but still have an abundance of cap space to do so even after Ward's signing. However, goaltending continues to be a trouble spot for Carolina heading into the 2016-17 season.
The Hurricanes were an improved team in just about every aspect in 2015-16, except one. Despite adding Eddie Lack to join Ward in a tandem situation at the goaltender position, Carolina had a .902 team save percentage, which ranked 29th in the entire NHL.
Ward's career has been a bit of a roller coaster, too, with a few more valleys than there are peaks. It couldn't have started better as Ward was the team's standout rookie goaltender during their Stanley Cup run in 2006. The netminder won the Conn Smythe as the playoff MVP that year, but has struggled when it comes to repeating that success.
In 564 appearances with Carolina over his career, the 32-year-old is 269-208-68 with a .910 save percentage and 2.70 goals-against average. Meanwhile, with Ward as the No. 1 goalie, the Hurricanes have made it to the playoffs only twice, including that Stanley Cup run in 2006. They haven't been back to the postseason since 2008-09.
Last season, he owned a .909 save percentage in 52 appearances. He has been below the league's average save percentage for each of the last four years and that was with a contract that had that onerous $6.3 million cap hit attached to it.
While Ward's numbers have been pretty poor over his career, this extension makes sense on a few different fronts.
First off, the Hurricanes are still essentially in rebuild mode. In addition to the younger Lack, who can still push for more No. 1 time, Carolina has a few goalies in their prospect system that appear to have No. 1 potential. That's especially true of 20-year-old netminder Alex Nedeljkovic, who has been a star talent in the Ontario Hockey League.
He needs more time to marinate in the minors before being brought in to the big club, though. Ward being back on the roster will allow the Canes to be patient with Nedeljkovic. That makes Ward little more than a stop-gap player for Carolina, but he's one they're familiar with and he still has the potential to steal the odd game here and there. He's also familiar to the fan base as one of the last links to the Stanley Cup team.
Additionally, Ward could potentially be exposed for the expansion draft next season. With reports that a new team in Las Vegas is essentially a done deal, each team will be guaranteed to lose one player from its roster. If Ward is selected there, the Hurricanes get out of the contract early at no additional cost to them. Since they have the cap space to spare in the short term, it's a decent situation for them to be in.
Carolina is unlikely to be a playoff team next year, but head coach Bill Peters and their stable of younger players are helping to turn things around. They're going to need a little more patience, but not tying themselves down to any goaltender in the long term is the right play even if they could struggle in the short term.
