Hurricanes Lose Ward, Sign Legace

The Hurricanes season has been started horribly and more injury news just makes the taste even more sour than just the games they are losing. Cam Ward will miss at least three weeks with a lacerated leg, which he suffered on Saturday against Columbus, but could be out much longer. Ward was just released from hospital on Monday morning after being monitored from blood loss and likely some surgery to repair his leg.

Ward appeared in 15 of the team's 16 games up until the injury, but could only register two wins in those games. That isn't quite the start we (or the Hurricanes, for that matter) were expecting out of their number one goalie and he's caused many teams, including many fantasy teams, to suffer in the early weeks of the season.

The injury list continues to grow for the hurricanes, who is already without Eric Staal and Ray Whitney, but did receive some reprieve as Tim Gleason and Tuomo Ruutu returned to the line-up during the week.

In the Draft, Ward was a first round pick of Stacey's (14th overall), which likely had to hurt with the poor production, but at least he was getting minutes before the injury, which at least gave some hope that if the Hurricanes turned it around, Ward would be there collecting the points. For at least the next month, Ward will be on the shelf, not able to pick up anything for Stacey now, who currently sits in 5th place in the Draft.

On the Sheet, Ward could have been a respectable pick in Box 31, where the rest of the Eastern Conference goalies were situated. Fortunately for those in the pool, they didn't choose Ward in Box 31, skipping out on him for other goalies like Martin Brodeur, Marc-Andre Fleury or Tim Thomas.

To help ease the loss of Ward in Carolina, the team signed Manny Legace to a new 1-year, two-way deal on Monday morning. Legace was playing in Chicago of the AHL, while he waited for an opportunity like this to come along. The deal is worth $500,000 in the NHL and $105,000 in the AHL, but the cap number will be discounted a month as well. The Hurricanes, with all their long-term injuries, they are in good shape to take on the new contract and move forward with a third goaltender in the system.