The Washington Capitals are a promising, star-powered group with a stellar head coach, the stingiest playoff goaltender in the last 25 years, and a devoted, red-rocking fan base.
But we’re not certain we’d want to be in the general manager’s shoes this off-season.
Of the nine key free agents Brian MacLellan must make decisions on this summer, Joel Ward should be flagged as high priority, right under restricted free agent Braden Holtby.
The good news is that coming to terms with the 34-year-old winger shouldn’t be difficult. The Capitals want to keep him in the fold, and Ward wants to re-sign.
“I’d love to stay,” Ward told Dean Blundell on Sportsnet 590 The Fan Friday. “I had moments where I thought we could go all the way with this group. I’d definitely like to stay, for sure.”
Naturally, Ward spoke highly of the city, the “amazing” Holtby, the fans and coach Barry Trotz, who guided the undrafted, late-blooming Ward for three season in Nashville.
“It’s a good chance to play with some superstars, a good chance to play with [Alex Ovechkin] and [Nicklas] Backstrom, which made things more fun,” Ward said. “Hopefully, definitely I’ll come back.”
LISTEN: Joel Ward talks Game 7, Ovechkin, Trotz, contract
Ward is precisely the type of determined player you can’t have too many of. A “Joel Ward” photo search for this article opened a visual catalog of the way he plays. In nearly each image, he’s toppling over an opponent or slamming a crease or rubbing between two foes in a corner. He thrives in those cliched “dirty areas” hockey folk speak so fondly of, and grinds till the final buzzer.
Even better, he shines when Washington — a team still trying to reach that conference final after losing a series of seven one-goal games to New York this week — needs him most.
Exit meetings for the Capitals get underway Friday. Surely Ward’s elevated post-season play will be a topic. He puts up 0.66 points per game in the playoffs compared to 0.43 in the regular season.
And while history dictates forwards should start declining after age 32, Ward’s last two seasons have been his best.
He loves the game, understands the game, and can articulate it better than most of us.
Ward provided one of the playoffs’ greatest quotes to the Washington Post this week when asked about Ovechkin’s Game 7 guarantee.
“People don’t understand, the sport of hockey is a different beast compared to other sports. You can’t just throw that deep ball in the corner, and it’s up to you to just go and grab it. Things happen,” Ward told the paper.
“You make a pass, it banks off the boards differently, it goes off a guy’s skate, bounces over there. There’s a lot of variables that go into it…. Hockey is the ultimate beast, man. It’s a crazy sport.”
Back to McLellan and his salary cap.
Restricted free agent Holtby, the most bona fide No. 1 the Caps have had in six years must be locked up — without question.
The goaltender, who made at least one writer’s list of Vezina finalists, holds a .936 career save percentage in the playoffs. That is the best mark of any goalie since 1990 (minimum 20 games played).
Ward should get a pay bump up from his current $3 million average annual salary, and we’d expect UFA Jay Beagle (the best face-off man in the playoffs) and young RFAs Marcus Johansson and Evgeny Kuznetsov to stay with raises as well.
In addition to Ward, defencemen Mike Green and Tim Gleason and forwards Curtis Glencross and Eric Fehr are also turning UFA.
McLellan, widely praised for adding expensive and effective free agents Matt Niskanen and Brooks Orpik last summer, can’t pay them all.
The expectation is that Green, who played fifth-defenceman minutes in the playoffs, walks for the allure of a bidding war. Same goes for Glencross, a trade-deadline rental who registered just one point in 10 playoff games.
After that, things get more complicated. There’s a lot of variables.
But there won’t be in re-signing Ward. Come April, he’s a different beast, man.