Cam Ward retires- a cautionary tale

[yave1964]

  Cam  Ward, easily the winningest goalie in Hurricane/Whaler history has hung up his pads after garnering no interest from any club this offseason.

 

  Part of this is to praise Ward who won a Stanley Cup as a rookie, appearing in only 14 games in the 05-06 season the baby faced kid was handed the reins in the postseason and won the Smythe as the best player in the postseason setting himself up for great expectations.

 

  Then. Here is the cautionary part.

 

  Ward was good many years he was DAMN good but never came close to that magical rookie year when he carried his team to an unexpected cup, his team only made the playoffs one other time for the rest of his career. He was mediocre in years and was bad bordering on very bad for the final three years in Carolina but they were stuck with a bad contract, they kept bringing in goalies to push him but they were usually bad as well and Ward would eventually slide back into the starting job.

 

 27th all time in games in net, 23rd in wins, all but his final year with the Canes. Not bad, but not what one would have expected after his awe inspiring first season. Truthfully, take away his SC season and he is Jimmy Howard. He came into the league, everyone saw the next Ken Dryden after his Cinderella season and instead he turned into a long lasting good but not great goalie.

 

  So those heaping Laurels on the heads of Binnington and Matt Murray, remember that there was only one Ken Dryden, those kids if they are lucky MIGHT be as good as Ward but that is about it. 

 

 Just a bit of perspective.

 

 

Edited August 29, 2019 by yave1964

[IllaZilla]

Could his mediocrity be partially a function of the mediocre to poor teams playing in front of him?

[yave1964]

2 hours ago, IllaZilla said:

Could his mediocrity be partially a function of the mediocre to poor teams playing in front of him?

 Oh absolutely. Ward has always reminded me of a Craig Anderson/Mike Smith type, on a bad team his numbers would be bad, on a good team his numbers would be good. In other words, he plays to the level of his team, an average goalie who rises or sinks based off the team around him. He could probably go to about any bar in Raleigh and drink for free based off the one magical season but really he did nothing much after that to think he was more than an average goalie. Great goalies like Brodeaur also played with bad/mediocre teams but elevated them winning cups, making playoff runs with teams that were nothing special other than Brodeur and a player or two. Roy in 86 with the Habs who quite frankly may be the worst team ever to win a cup were in the playoffs because of Saint Patrick and his brilliance. Cam Ward could not do that, he was incapable of lifting a mediocre team to new heights, he was a good player for a long time, but guys like he and Ranford simply had a lightning in a bottle moment, guys like Binnington and Murray are much more likely to be a Ward or Ranford than anything else. 

[flyercanuck]

13 hours ago, IllaZilla said:

Could his mediocrity be partially a function of the mediocre to poor teams playing in front of him?

 

Absolutely. Even that cup winning team was one of the most mediocre teams ever to hoist the silver chalice...though Roys Habs teams have a good argument.

[IllaZilla]

I figured as much. It’s just interesting to get others opinion. I know some people are already anointing Binnington the next Jacques Plante, but for every Jacques Plante, there’s been an  Andrew Hammond or a Jim Carrey or an Andrew Raycroft. 

[JR Ewing]

8 minutes ago, IllaZilla said:

I figured as much. It’s just interesting to get others opinion. I know some people are already anointing Binnington the next Jacques Plante, but for every Jacques Plante, there’s been an  Andrew Hammond or a Jim Carrey or an Andrew Raycroft. 

 

Yeah, nah. I'm @yave1964. A few weeks ago, this came up, and Bill Ranford was the exact name I settled on.