After, it was reported yesterday that Pierre McGuire mentioned, in a radio interview, that it was of his opinion that Cam Ward was headed to the Blackhawks, Jay Zawaski from the Score 670 reported this morning that there may already be a verbal agreement in principle with the 34-year-old former Stanley Cup winning Carolina Hurricane goaltender.
He is coming off a 2-year backup deal in Carolina that paid him $3.3 Million per season.
While this would certainly be an upgrade from the uncertainty in the Blackhawks crease last season, could Cam Ward carry the mail for the Chicago Blackhawks if Corey Crawford either cannot play next season, or gets injured once again?
Ward has had some short impressive stints in his career but, overall, he has proven to be a goaltender that cannot definitively hold the full-time number one position. He burst onto the scene in the 2005-06 season as a relatively unknown rookie, and carried the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup championship with a Conn Smythe winning performance.
Since then, Ward has posted a .909 career save percentage and 2.70 goals against average. At his peak, in 2010-11, he led the league in games played (74), shots faced (2375), goals against (184), saves (2191) and minutes played (4318) while also posting an impressive .923 save percentage and 2.56 goals against average.
The 6’1″ 185 lbs Saskatoon native certainly has the experience to backstop this transitional Blackhawks team in a back-up role, but if Stan Bowman cannot bring in some help to reduce the amount of shots the team gave up last season it may not make a difference.
Last season, the Blackhawks gave up the 8th most shots in the NHL at 2697. Their team save percentage was 19th in the league at .906. Ironically enough, they were tied at 7th overall with the Carolina Hurricanes for most goals given up (256).
Corey Crawford’s status going forward still looms over the city like Wednesday morning rain cloud, though. Stan Bowman and Joel Quenneville have both indicated that they “expect” him to play this season, but they have also slipped a time or two and revealed that he has still not taken the ice.
Your current 34-year-old, allegedly concussed goalie has not seen the ice in roughly five months and you’re expecting him to “start training soon“. Blackhawks fans might want to start worrying just a bit more, because if they are now going to be pinning hopes on another 34-year-old that has not been able to hold down a starting job, trouble is brewing.
Then again, maybe a change of scenery is what Ward needs to reignite his career.