The turning point for new Caps winger Joel Ward came during his final year in the AHL with the Houston Aeros. Playing for former NHL coach Kevin Constantine in 2007-08, Ward learned how to see the game in a different way. He wasn’t just playing it anymore. He finally understood how to break down a game – where he should have been on the ice at a given moment, how to embrace a role and make the best of it.
“I kind of took that [year] as a learning curve for me and something I’m thankful for,” Ward said at his introductory press conference at Kettler Iceplex on Tuesday afternoon. “And it got me a job in Nashville at the time and here I am today.”
Ward’s path to pro hockey was not conventional. He played four years of university hockey in Canada, earning a B.A. in sociology from the University of Prince Edward Island. He wasn’t drafted by a single NHL team in 2005 and signed as a free agent with the Minnesota Wild instead. Ward managed 11 games in the NHL in 2006-07, but for three years was primarily an AHL player. But his talks with Constantine that final year in Houston allowed him to take the next step when the Nashville Predators offered him an opportunity.
He’s made the most of it. Ward had 40 goals and 59 assists in three years with Nashville and was brilliant in last spring’s postseason with seven goals and six assists in 12 games. Don’t let that small sample size fool you. Ward has the ability to shake off the pressure of the postseason, clearly. But he seems ticketed as part of a defensive-minded third line, likely at right wing. Few players in the NHL handle that role better. That’s something Washington general manager George McPhee knew his club needed after one too many postseason flameouts.
“It’s no secret that I’m going to go out there and score 50 goals by no means,” Ward said. “But I’m definitely going to go out there and play an honest game and work hard.”
Ward, a late bloomer at 30, grew up in a blue collar section of Toronto, the son of a single mother and with two older brothers to keep him in line. Getting the college degree was important. But once he did that he was free to concentrate on turning himself into a pro. It took some time. But it’s happened. He signed a four-year, $12 million contract with the Caps on July 1.
Despite that “humble” upbringing “I still had the dream of playing in the National Hockey League and it’s something I always wanted to do,” Ward said. “I didn’t let nothing stop me. I just took a different route going through it.”
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