Possibly the biggest unrestricted free agent signing of the day comes out of San Jose, where the Sharks inked forward Joel Ward to a 3-year deal, which has been initially reported to be $9.825 million in total, which works out to be a cap hit of $3.275 million per year. Ward, a strong power-forward, was playing in Washington for the last four seasons of his 8-year career, to date. In the 2015 season, he finished 230th overall in pool scoring, 159th among all forwards with 19 goals and 34 points in all 82 games with the Capitals, making him into a decent depth option for the Sharks.
The big physical presence of Ward could go a long ways on the 3rd line for San Jose or even have him bumped up on the 2nd line, when the team is in need of some traffic in front of the opposition net.
There is certainly some upside to this signing for Joel Ward, especially if he can get that net front presence on the Sharks' power play, where there is a bucket load of talent working the puck on the perimeter and the points.The downside to Ward, however, is that he is 35 years old and saw a a slight decline in his offensive output from 2014. The Sharks depth doesn't really have the same kind of grind that the Capitals depth did last season, which could also be a problem, if Ward ends up in the bottom six for extended stretches, so I'm thinking the decline may continue in 2016, because I just don't see him playing much in the top six, in five on five situations.
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