NHL Trade Rumors: Cam Ward Should Be Traded

As far as NHL trade rumors go Cam Ward will be talked about by a few teams, the aging Hurricanes goaltender has fallen out of favor in Carolina and is not new to the rumor mill. For Ward everything could ride on a trade. His career has hit a wall and his talents have dropped off, but that doesn’t mean he is useless; at least not yet. At 30 years old there should still be some solid goaltending left in his tank, but he needs a change of scenery.

Carolina doesn’t need Ward anymore and they have been rumored to be shopping him for years now. But, after winning them a Stanley Cup and giving him a

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All-Star salary finding teams willing to make a deal has proven difficult.

There are a few teams that will be active in the goaltending market; you can read about some of the netminders in the rumor mill here. But as for Ward; he has been the victim of injury and age. Luckily for the Hurricanes teams like the Sabres, Wild, Oilers, Canucks, or maybe the Rangers may be looking to improve their goaltending in one way or another.

The Hurricanes and Ward just are no longer meant to be together. Ward carries a cap hit of $6,300,000 and has one year remaining on his contract. It’s the cap hit that may make dealing Ward hard to do. With so many teams in salary cap jail finding a team that wants Ward and is able to carry is inflated salary will prove to be an issue.

Ward has played in 35 games this season and while doubts remain about his longevity his save percentage of .913 is deceiving; it ranks him 24 in the NHL in that

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category. As for winning games, Ward is a coin flip, but that could be in part due to being in the Hurricanes roster.  Ward’s record of 13-18-4-1 just goes to show you as a backup he could do just fine. It’s as a starter that Wards numbers don’t hold up well and paying $6.3 million for a back up is just not going to happen.

There are two kinds of teams that may look at a Cam Ward trade; teams looking to make sure they have a stable back up for a playoff run, or teams looking to fill the net for a year or two. Adding Ward to your roster may not be a team’s long-term solution, but he can still be a good bridge goaltender for teams looking to spend money to get to the cap floor.

Moving Ward means a goaltender will need to come back in return. Leading me to think Vancouver, or the Wild could be the best fit. A sleeper could be the Buffalo Sabres.