According to Joel Ward’s Agent, Everyone Wants To Sign Joel Ward

CSN Washington’s Jill Sorenson reported this afternoon that Joel Ward is one of the most popular free agents on the market, according to Joel Ward’s agent Peter Cooney.
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CSN Washington’s Jill Sorenson reported this afternoon that Joel Ward is one of the most popular free agents on the market, according to Joel Ward’s agent Peter Cooney.
Photo: Jared Silber
Brace yourself. This news may make you feel super sad. According to The Washington Post’s Alex Prewitt, 34-year-old winger Joel Ward appears likely to test the free agent market on July 1st.
When George McPhee signed Joel Ward to a four-year, $12-million deal, many thought it was an exorbitant contract based on a playoff performance he’d never live up to. But then, he sorta did.
By Peter Hassett 6 years ago
Photo credit: Susan Walsh
In the summer of 2011, the Washington Capitals gave Joel Ward a four-year, $12 million contract. The deal was largely based on Ward’s play over 12 games when Ward scored 13 points during Nashville’s run to the second round under Barry Trotz. In the regular season that year, Ward had scored just 10 goals. He was 31-years-old. Some of George McPhee‘s gambles didn’t work out, but this one did.
By Chris Gordon 6 years ago
Photo credit: Nick Wass
Braden Holtby is that good. He has been the best goalie of the playoffs, posting a .951 save percentage through 11 games. But on Sunday night, the New York Rangers offense finally broke through. They jumped out to a 4-1 lead before the Capitals almost pulled off an unbelievable comeback. For the first time this postseason, we saw Holtby crack. Washington’s faith in him, however, is unshaken. They were not interested in talking about Henrik Lundqvist, who turned aside 42 shots in Washington’s one-goal defeat.
“Our goalie’s better,” Evgeny Kuznetsov, defiant in his postgame media scrum, said. “I don’t know what you want to listen from my mouth, but our goalie’s better.”
By Chris Gordon 6 years ago
The Kuznetscream.
The Caps at one point during the third period were down 4-1. Then Evgeny Kuznetsov and Joel Ward scored and made it a game! First, the 22-year-old rookie scored his fifth goal of the playoffs off a broken play in front of the net. He now leads the Caps in goals.
The Washington Capitals may have just been jobbed out of a big goal.
Set up just outside of the crease, Caps forward Joel Ward screened Henrik Lundqvist as Matt Niskanen unleashed a bomb from the point. Then: craziness.
The shot, which was going wide, deflects off a Rangers stick towards the net. Derek Stepan shoves Ward, Ward collides with Lundqvist, and the puck bounces into the net.
Official Kevin Pollock immediately waves the goal off for incidental contact.
Ward smiling after Derek Stepan tries punching him.
The Washington Capitals won game one at Madison Square Garden in surprisingly easy fashion– though it took a last-second goal to win. The first twenty minutes of game two have been way different.
But I’m an optimist, so let’s focus on the awesome things that happened in the first period first.
Image by me
In the playoffs (minus that one time), Joel Ward is as clutch as that guy who tight-roped over Niagara Falls. He’s as dependable as a Bounty paper towel. He has more moxie than Captain America.
Thursday night, after tallying the game-winning goal with 1.3 seconds left and becoming the third NHL player ever to score a playoffs GWG with two seconds left, adoring Capitals fans started memeing Ward.
Photo: Jared Silber
A few years ago, Dan Steinberg asked Joel Ward why his teammates call him The Big Cheese.
“Just the big guy on campus, you know?” Ward explained. “The Big Cheese, it’s like the king on the throne. I mean, the Cheese kind of holds everything together in here, you know?”
On Thursday night, Ward, playing on the first line again with Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin, showed why he’s such a big deal. The winger scored with 1.3 seconds remaining in the third period after being marvelously set up by Alex Ovechkin. Ward also scored in game seven on Monday. He famously netted the series-ending goal in deciding game against the Boston Bruins two years ago.
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