Matt McClain/FOR THE WASHINGTON POST - Joel Ward, posing at Kettler Capitals Iceplex, earned a contract with Washington after a standout playoff performance last season with Nashville.
When work prevented his mother from driving him to games, he would hitch rides with teammates. When he got tired of asking people for rides, he’d lug his bag onto the bus.
Ward also recalled the father of one of his teammates purchasing him two sticks after he broke his last one in a game.
“I always had wood sticks,” he said. “The father of my team captain at the time bought me a couple of aluminum sticks for a couple hundred bucks.”
That generosity — and his own doggedness — helped him ascend the youth hockey ladder in Toronto and get drafted in the 15th round of the Ontario Hockey League draft by Owen Sound in 1997. Beating out players with higher draft status only stoked Ward’s determination.
Two years later, Ward drove to Boston to attend the 1999 entry draft in the hopes of hearing his name called. After 272 players were selected, Ward and his family members left FleetCenter disappointed but far from discouraged.
“I just figured, ‘Hey, this is the way it’s always been this way for me,’ ” he said. “Nothing has been easy. It’s just another bump in the road.’ ”
Ward enrolled at the University of Prince Edward Island at the urging of a former junior teammate and played four seasons there, amassing 54 goals in 103 games.
After his junior season, he received a tryout with the Red Wings. But when he was cut, he decided to return to Prince Edward Island and finish his degree in sociology rather than join a ECHL team.
“No one made it easy on him,” said former NHL goalie Kevin Weekes, who played street hockey with Ward growing up. “That’s for sure.”
A breakthrough
Ward got the break he needed in 2005, while playing in a roller hockey tournament in Naples, Fla. He had picked up the game as a teenager in Toronto, playing in the offseason to stay in shape and sharpen his skills.
That led to a tryout for the ECHL’s Florida Everblades. Two days later, he received an invitation to play for the American Hockey League’s Houston Aeros, Minnesota’s minor league affilate.
Ward made his NHL debut with the Wild in 2007, skating in 11 games. But the following season, he was one of the first players reassigned to the Aeros. In retrospect, he said, spending the entire 2007-08 campaign in the AHL represented a major turning point in his professional career.
“Kevin Constantine, my coach at the time, helped me work on my game,” Ward said. “He always said when you watch hockey, don’t just stare at the TV, watch your position, watch different guys, pay attention.”
Then this past spring came the three-week stretch that put Ward on the radar of general managers around the league. He scored three goals to help power the Predators past the Anaheim Ducks in the Western Conference quarterfinals. In the semis, he became a household name among hockey fans when he registered four goals and four assists in six-game defeat to the Canucks. At one point, he was tied for the playoff lead in goals.
“Things started going in and I was making plays,” Ward said. “Before you know it, everyone is in your face, asking questions. I was like, ‘I don’t have any secret formula.’ I was just working hard.”
Five weeks later, Ward signed a four-year contract with the Capitals worth $12 million. Washington, Nashville, San Jose, Anaheim and Los Angeles were among the teams he had put on his wish list. According to McPhee, Ward ended up attracting offers from 16 other clubs, forcing the Capitals to overpay by 15 percent to secure his signature.
So far, Ward has exceeded the Capitals’ expectations. His plus-minus rating of plus-7 is third best and his four goals (tied for fifth most) have him on pace for a career-best 21 points.
Bruce Boudreau acknowledged that he’s still getting to know Ward. But the coach said his backstory is consistent with the traits Ward has displayed in the dressing room and on the ice.
“You can see that he’s the kind of guy who would overcome things that were put in his way,” Boudreau said. “Who would have expected a kid who played university hockey in Canada and then the East Coast league to persevere and end up being here, in the NHL?”
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