At this point it's probably in the best interests of Cam and the Canes to part ways. Ward gets a fresh start. The Canes get some cap space. Any useful assets obtained for Ward would be a bonus.
I wouldn't have believed it prior to this stretch, but I swear it seems like the ghost of '06 is hanging over us. The culture is just all wrong here right now and I don't know where to start but there needs to be an impact move made that shows this team is serious about salary to production ratio and this isn't just a nice place to play, it's a place that expects results per dollar. God knows we've been charitable enough since that run. Eric and Cam as the centerpieces of our franchise don't seem as hungry as they should be and part of me wonders if winning that early in their career was a good thing for them developmentally. Both players notably raise their games in the postseason, but I have always been of the opinion that players that can turn on that extra gear are simply players that can't get up for 82 regular season games because they don't mean enough on a night to night basis. The myth of "playoff performers", is one that is propagated largely by players who likely aren't going into overdrive until they really need it.
I just get frustrated because I can't remember the last time a player came here and truly started thriving that wasn't destined to anyways. We've hit a few homeruns in drafting but every team does. Our big trades, our free agents.... nobody has ever really blown the doors off and hit another level here. One could argue Semin in a partial season last year but even that level wasn't entirely a departure from what we paid for him.
We need to figure out why this is a place that guys come to get fat and not a place guys come to win games. That's the issue. Where does it start? What can change that atmosphere? I think parting with Ward, as much as it would hurt on the day it inevitably will happen, is a step in the direction of finding out.