- Dec 6, 2011
- 12,387
- 39,541
There is no question. Both will be retired.
I would have said the opposite, if either winds up being retired. Mostly because of the “competition” that’s already up there. Staal was fine for us, but he wasn’t a Francis or a Brindamour. Ward has most of the franchise’s goaltending records, and it’s often not even close.
Of course, if either player were provided any kind of meaningful support during their prime years here, there’d be no questions about retiring their numbers.
Eric was significantly better than Ward relative to his peers for a longer period of time. He had an 8 year stretch where he was 10th in the league in points and 5th in goals. Stretch it to 9 and he was 7th in points and goals. Most people thought Brindy should have won the Smythe anyways, but Brindy, Staal, or Ward all could have won it. He scored 775 points here. That's a lot. He was a second team all star in 05-06 and played in 4 all star games. He was a captain here for a long time, and while many hold that against him, you could have put amazing captain Jonathan Toews here for those years, and his leadership wouldn't have done a damn thing.
Like I said, Cam deserves it too, but the Smythe is the only thing that he has over Staal. His .909 and 2.70 over 13 years are awful compared to what Staal did in his time here. But of course, it was his D that made him bad, but the lack of talent around Staal that he still managed to produce greatly doesn't matter.
I didn't even want to bag on Ward, my issues with him aside. I'm just showing that Ward shouldn't be a slam dunk compared to Eric. They both should be slam dunks.Ward’s numbers overall are not good. He did carry 3 or 4 of those complete dog**** teams on his back to relevance, one to the conference finals when he finally literally hurt his back.
It always absolutely befuddled me that Jim Rutherford, former NHL goaltender, couldn’t ever find a back up goalie. We bemoan Francis’ problem getting competent goalies (and wow was it bad) but JR completely whiffed on every backup he brought in after what Kevin Weekes?
I'd also argue that Staal getting his kick in the pants and recovering his game in Minnesota validates every criticism he ever got here and then some- for the bulk of his tenure, we got a lazy and listless Staal who only rarely played to his potential. It wasn't about support. It was about him almost never playing past second gear. If his decline here was just one of age and wear, he'd have gotten his number retired. But his revival in Minnesota shows that, outside of 2006 and 2009, he simply never gave his all for this franchise, and that failure in play and failure of model leadership is a big reason why we've been in the playoff drought that we're in. Unless he signs with the Canes this offseason and spends several years making up for that period of time and leading us back to the playoffs, I don't think he gets his number retired and I don't think he ever should. I think it stays out of circulation until he retires, but I think like Whitney's 13, it should be put back into use after a decent interval.
Ward I'm conflicted about. I think we broke and wasted Ward behind absurdly bad defenses- he didn't have the numbers you'd hope for to retire the most storied number for goalies, and it's hard to sort out his skill versus what playing for this ****show of a franchise did to him. But he was a stalwart for this team for such a long time, and did win the Conn Smythe. I would lean towards retiring his number.
During Darling’s time here the Canes are 41-31-9 in games he doesn’t start.
Pretty much a 92 point team. Still not playoff worthy, but right on the cusp.
Yes it's completely absurd how long we floundered looking for just not terrible goaltending. I remember having conversations about signing darling and saying "he doesn't even have to be that good, he just has to be ok" boy if I had only knownAnd it’s not like the goalies amassing that record are Vezina candidates or anything.
5. Dougie Hamilton, Hurricanes: Multiple sources confirmed that the Hurricanes are open to trading Hamilton, not necessarily because they’ve soured on him but because they’re trying to get the best possible offer for a defenseman not named Jaccob Slavin. It would be surprising if the Hurricanes don’t trade either Hamilton, Justin Faulk or Brett Pesce at some point, although the best deal might not be until the draft.
13. Micheal Ferland, Hurricanes: Carolina is already getting calls on Ferland, an unrestricted free agent who is due a big raise after this season. The Hurricanes like Ferland but not at the expected price he is likely to cost in his next deal. He’s got size, playoff experience and a small cap number. It wouldn’t be surprising at all if the Penguins, always aggressive to improve their team under GM Jim Rutherford, were interested.
Craig Custance seems to double down on the recent rumblings about openness to trading Ferland and Hamilton in his "20 players who could move" column today on The gooble gobble Athletic.
NHL Trade Big Board: 20 players who could move before the...
the Hamilton thing is honestly fair enough but the Ferland snippet is slam-my-head-against-the-desk dumb. if you don't want him at the price he is likely to cost in his next deal then Why The Hell Did You Trade For Him As A One Year To UFA Guy In The First Place. . . . . . .
and leaving that aside, and the ostensible reasonableness of being open to trading Hamilton in the right scenario aside, I am soooo over this regime's tendency so far to float gossipy trial balloons to the usual sources (Custance, Friedman, et al) as this sort of ploy to goad negotiations along or spur interest league wide in their assets.
it started with the constant chatter about Hanifin/Lindholm's RFA negotiations, then the potential deals with them around the draft, then all this gobbledygook about resigning Aho and Teravainen, all the various incarnations of a potential Nylander deal, then this crap with Hamilton and/or Ferland.
it's ****ing exhausting, it's clearly having no tangible impact on this leadership group's ability to close deals or acquire legit talent, it brings out the absolute worst in hftrade chumlords, and it feels gross. I feel like I could rant about this for the rest of the day. it's becoming more and more transparent, and it's garbage. stop doing it.
Don’t forget CDH for 4 years at $18.2Mthe largest contract signed since Dundon became owner last January is Trevor van Riemsdyk's 2 year 4.6M contract. at some point the Hurricanes are going to have to sign away a decent amount of money. when they do, it will be the first time Dundon has committed an amount of money more than the going rate for a replacement level player.
that combined with the (rather widely reported and far far below going rate) salaries for his GM and head coach paint a pretty compelling picture of the owner and his idea of paying money for talent.
you're right, not sure how I forgot that. scratch that point.Don’t forget CDH for 4 years at $18.2M
During Darling’s time here the Canes are 41-31-9 in games he doesn’t start.
Pretty much a 92 point team. Still not playoff worthy, but right on the cusp.