Are Goalies Worth Elite Pay?

As the new contract kicks in, it does provide one season of ramp-up relief.

Although Cam’s cap hit of $6.3M ranks him second, only behind King Henry’s $6.875M and just slightly ahead of Ryan Miller’s $6.25M, his cash flow hit for this season is not quite so lofty.

Sorting by goalie position and ‘10-’11 salary (not cap hit), slots Cam at #12 among the NHL goalies under contract for next season.

It’s the following season, ‘11-’12, in which his contract mirrors his cap hit at $6.3M, moving him rapidly up the list to #3 that season, behind only Lundquist and Luongo (assuming that contract is allowed to stand).

Cam’s definitely Ryan Miller good, which I’m sure was used in determining his contract.

And, despite the need for certain GM’s to “go cheap” in the goalie department in a salary-cap world (especially one where they may have made some bad decisions elsewhere within the budget), I think your goalie is still going to be a huge factor in just how far you go in a season…especially once the second season begins.

Excellent post Bob! I for one think Cam is worth pretty much whatever it takes to keep him at this point in his career. He’s a beast in the playoffs and can win games we don’t have any business winning. Obviously we would all like to see his regular season play improve, but I think the biggest reason Cam doesn’t have numbers like some is because of our defense. IMO, if we had a big, bad, stay-at-home d-man to help Timmy out, it would likely make Cam’s job much easier.

I’ve been re-watching games from this past season and it seems like Cam was left out to dry on his own far to often. If we had a defense that was Blackhawk-like, I’m convinced a healthy Cam Ward would be a standout in the league every year…

While i too may think that Cam Ward does need to step it up a notch or 2, but we fans must never forget, that a goalie is only as good as those who are back there with him helping him…and last year several goals during the dreaded slump were preventable IF again I say IF Cam ward get beter support from the D squad…but that is another topic for another day…but to answered Bob’s questions of Who I’d chose IF I was a GM ?? I’d look at several of the AHL premire goalies and see what they have,what they did …again I’d looking to see & not necessarily actively shopping…:-}

A great goalie is like a good starting pitcher in Baseball. They give your team a better chance at winining each and every game.

Given our lack of investment at other positions, it seems logical the ’Canes would spend money on a backstop that gives our team a better chance of winning.

Bob’s statistics show that you can win the ‘Cup without an ’Elite’ goal tender, however how many ’Cups would NJ have won without Martin Brodeur?

has a few things he needs to work on, but the new belief that you really don’t need a great Goalie is not his fault. At the time this was signed, this looked like a decent deal, especially considering JC himself could have come down from the Heavens and offered to play goal for a dollar and JR would have still said Cam was better. Ward = Fleury right now. He is better than Niemi and, keep in mind I have been a critic too, I believe he has better upside that Marc Andre. I think he has peaked, Wardo can still get better.

He needs to be come a better one on one goalie, he looks freaking lost in shoot-outs. He also has to stop having the " Cam Ward Shutout "(Where he allows an extremely soft goal at some point in the game but nothing else). I think these things can come with age.

I think he is worth the money, especially considering the Org was going to spend it on him any way.

In a word, HELL YEAH.

I guess technically that’s two words.

I have always been amazed that everyone here seems to be more apologetic for Ward’s shortcomings, but very critical of Staal’s by comparison.

 The Goalie position is such that a bad day for a goalie is almost always a loss, where as a bad day for any skater, be it your star captain or your 4th line winger, can be overcome by another skater rising to the occasion.

I have often felt this organization has been too high on Cam, and that it may be there eventual undoing…….

I say yes, look at the list of Stanley Cup winners the past 20 years, with the exception of Chicago (Niemi) and Detroit (Osgood not Hasek) almost everyone of those teams had at the time what would be called an Elite Goaltender. If you’re not going to spend the money on a goalie then you have to spend it on your dmen like Chicago & Detroit did.

I felt really bad as a fan of the Canes to see Cam not only get the leg injury (for the 2nd time in his career of all things) – but then have the back issues. I hope he’s spent the entire summer keeping in shape and watching his back, but not pushing so hard that he will have a reoccurring of the back issues.

I think that as long as he is healthy, Cam will be awesome – and then we can start blaming the defense. Because even if your goalie is the best in the world, your defense needs to be right up there as well. :)

off topic here but I read this from a Puck Daddy Headlines link…….Krajicek in negotiations with Canes? http://www.broadstreethockey.com/2010/8/16/1625141/catching-up-with-krajicek

I love Cam & I think he is great (but I would take Legacy in a shootout any day) and he deserved the pay. however I cannot help but think the length of this contract may turn around and bite us later. No facts just gut…I hope I am wrong

I would be nice to see a complete healthy season for him this year. The need for his magic moments are long over due

   If one NHL gets a tattoo on his arm, about 20 other GMs rush out to ensure they are not left behind. The remainder of the GMs without tattoos, shake their heads quietly and go about their business. The “let’s go cheap on our goalies” GMs don’t impress me with their foresight. In the end, winning two or three more games a season is the difference between early golf and a long post season. Some GMs have invested $18 million in their first forward lines and have built teams under the “aces and spaces” concept.

  I think Cam Ward is a bargain. I also think E. Staal, Ruutu, and Pitkanen are bargains. The idea of scrimping of goalies in order to invest in more expensive forwards or defensemen seems foolhardy. Leighton showed what happens with a talented goalie, but one who has flaws in his game, gets to the seventh game of the Stanley Cup. I can’t imagine in the exact same situation with Cam Ward in goal, Ward lets in the Kane goal. The elite goalies rise to the occasion; and the goalies of moderate talent explain how sorry they are that their team lost the big game.

It’s hard to find goalies and players who know how to win the big games. Both Wardo and Staal have won the Cup and World Championships. If Ward was healthy, he would of been my pick for the Olympic team and would have won the gold with Staal.

His game 7 record says it all. Not bad at age 26.

I think players are more confident with Wardo in the nets regardless of his stats and worth the money.

Having just rewatched Game 7 of the 2006 Stanley Cup championship, I have to say I stand by my remark from earlier in this thread.

agree!

I must say, I’m a little shocked (and perhaps a tad disappointed) that canescup hasn’t chimed in with something along the lines of “yeah goalies are worth elite pay, but our goalie (note-a 2goal20secondCam reference would also go here) isn’t”.

Come on canescup, step up your Cam-hating game. :)

In all seriousness, I see this as kind of a rock and a hard place issue. If we don’t pay Cam (and Eric) elite money, we can’t keep them and the team suffers. But at the same time, having two such highly paid players on a budget team forces “coupon-cutting” in all other areas. Personally I think the team is better off with Cam at a high price (and yes Eric too) and a cost-saving approach elsewhere than a team without Cam or Eric and spreading that money evenly across all players.

I think having any “elite” player at any position is going to help. Goaltenders are no exception.

 I’d rather have Ward credentials than Turco, Luongo and Nabokov’s Vezina nominations.

The ORG has always been searching for their Brodeur (I think this is thanks to JR having been a goalie combined with his stick-envy of NJ. They found a franchise goalie in Ward and will be hard-pressed to let go.

but more like an emphatic “F*CK NO”.

In this salary cap era, if I were a coach, I’d send my scrub players at full speed into the opposing teams multi-million dollar goalie.

If that hurts them during “clean play”, that’s a shame.

If that hurts them during “not so clean play”, hell hockey’s a tough sport so man up.