RALEIGH, NC—Jim Rutherford, President and General Manager of the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes, today announced that the team has agreed to terms with goaltender Cam Ward on a new, six-year contract. The deal, which begins with the 2010-11 season, will pay Ward an average of $6.3 million each year through the 2015-16 season. Details of the contract and Ward’s 2009-10 Carolina Hurricanes Media Guide bio are attached to this release.

Paul Branecky

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“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Cam prior to the season,” said Rutherford. “Signing Cam long term, along with Eric Staal, gives us a strong foundation to build teams year after year."

Ward, 25, is entering his fifth NHL season and holds a career regular-season record of 120-77-18, putting him just 10 wins shy of the franchise record of 130 wins by a goaltender. The Saskatoon, Sask., native is the career franchise leader in winning percentage (.600) and playoff wins (23), ranks third in team history with 12 shutouts, fourth with 225 games played and set the single-season franchise record with 39 wins in 2008-09. In 2006, he won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs’ most valuable player, earning 15 wins and a posting a 2.14 goals-against average in 23 games en route to the Hurricanes’ Stanley Cup championship.

Since becoming Carolina’s starting netminder to start the 2006-07 season, Ward (6’1”, 185 lbs.) has registered 30-or-more wins and played in 60-or-more games in each season. In that time, he has posted a 2.70 goals-against average, a .906 save percentage and a 106-69-16 record. Carolina drafted Ward in the first round, 25th overall, in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft.

At the start of the 2006-07 season, Ward started “Cam’s Champs” to raise funds and awareness for Special Olympics of North Carolina. As a part of the program, Ward regularly hosts Special Olympics athletes at Hurricanes home games and meets with them after games. In 2008-09, he donated $4 per save, and encouraged Hurricanes fans to join him in supporting SONC. In its three years, “Cam’s Champs” has raised more than $30,000 for SONC. In 2008, Ward’s teammates named him as the team’s nominee for the NHL’s King Clancy Memorial Trophy, given annually “to the player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy contribution in his community.”