Tripp Tracy on Cam Ward HOF induction

It's a big night here at PNC Arena as the greatest goaltender in franchise history is set to be inducted into the Hurricanes Hall of Fame, Master of Ceremonies, and he moonlights as the Hurricanes TV analyst, Chip Tracy, joins us. All right, before we get into anything, are you nervous about your role in all of this? Well, I'm terribly excited, AG. You know, it's the first time I've done one of these, you know, in past years.

You know, my partner at 20 years, John Forslund, always did just a magical job. Right. I think about jersey retirements, the Stanley Cup Championship, banner raising.

Just, you know, obviously, I just like I try with progress, not perfection on TV every night to minimize and stay out of the way. And but I'm just as close as Cam and his wife, Cody, the kids are to me and Ken and Laura Ward, who will be here as parents. I'm just unbelievably excited to hear the raucous ovation that Cam's going to get, which I know it's going to be the ends of the earth to him.

Yeah. And also to reminisce about the 2006 Stanley Cup run. And, you know, it's going to be really, really cool. So I know I'm just really consumed with excitement to be able to take it in from the vantage point at the ice. And what will be a night Cam will never forget.

Most of the time we do these pregame chats, we talk about, you know, how the team is playing and what this up but the opposition poses and maybe we'll get to that. But I got to ask you about Cam because I've asked some other players and past teammates to kind of sum up what Cam Ward was as a goaltender and a guy and all that. So and I know you're close with him. So Cam Ward, the player, Cam Ward, the person. Cam Ward, the player, you know, for me, you know, my dad died a few years ago and, you know, my dad sponsored hockey in Detroit, AAA hockey, probably produced 25 to 30 NHLers, Stanley Cup winning captain, several Stanley Cup champions. And he was Cam's favorite or Cam was his favorite player. And I think he was Cam's favorite player because he was the father of a goaltender that had the opposite of Cam's wonderful artistic mechanics. He had simultaneously a calm nature about him, yet simultaneously an unbelievable competitive throwback nature, whether it be some of the two pad stacks or the poke checks, some of the just desperation glove saves over the years. So the combination of all those things made Cam, my dad, God rest his soul, his favorite. And then I think the last piece of it that plays into Cam Ward, the person AG, is that, you know, during the lean years where Cam shouldered so much of the load, he always stood up and faced the music and you could see the responsibility that he felt. I think about Eric Stahl on a night like this as well, spoke to Eric at length yesterday as he's in Washington for a big game with Florida. And so just that all-inclusive special nature to Cam, the artist of a goaltender that he was, the bigger the moment, the better he played, won all four game sevens he played, but then in adverse moments, the way that he conducted himself with such class. You always demean your own ability. You were drafted, by the way, one spot ahead of current San Jose Sharks GM Mike Greer, and you were drafted about, what, nine spots ahead of Pavel Dimitra, who only scored 304 NHL goals.

Give yourself a break. Well, I just, you know, I think back to the Stanley Cup run and somewhere along the way, I went from hoping to or expecting to win to hoping to win. And I remember game seven against Edmonton. I went on with Ron McLean and Hockey Night in Canada after 40 minutes. I remember how calm and relaxed they was.

And that's where I knew that the unbelievable opportunity to do TV. I had a level of confidence, whether I stink or I'm not, that I did not have as a player. And it just makes me marvel to the ends of the earth and admire the makeup of these number one goaltenders. A week ago tonight, I had dinner with Cam and Freddie Anderson in downtown Raleigh, and it was just fabulous AG to sit back and listen to those two number ones talk about what can be an extremely lonely, lonely position being a number one netminder in the National Hockey League. All right, I'm going to try to tie it to tonight's game against the Montreal Canadiens, and I'm going to go back to when Jordan Stahl played in his thousandth game and how emotional that game was.

And Hurricanes didn't play very well. For a guy like Jordan Stahl, who we know is close with Cam, how's it going to be for the whole team to watch somebody they're close with, and almost everybody on this team, all the core players pretty much, have all played with Cam Ward. There's some overlap there. How worried are you that there's going to be a little bit of emotional outpouring from them as well?

It's a great question. You know, and after the ceremony, there'll be a three or four minute skate for both teams to loosen up. I can tell you that it'll be a level playing field. I talked to Marty St. Louis yesterday, unbelievably classy, and he sent me a message and said that the Montreal Canadiens, as a show of respect, will be on the bench for the ceremony, which is fantastic. So, you know, both teams are going to have that four minute stretch to try to get loose after the ceremony. Where it's different for me than that ceremony honoring Jordan Stahl's thousandth game is that was during the COVID pandemic.

This is going to be an unbelievably electric atmosphere. And that game against Detroit, you're right, that year might have been the only real gut that Carolina had that entire regular season. I think tonight, coming off a win against Washington, coming off probably two thirds of a good home game against New York, a Montreal team that's won three games in a row. My intuition tells me and that overlap that you very wisely mentioned of guys that the core guys that played with Cam, I think the Hurricanes are going to be really good tonight and against the Montreal team that is feeling it having won three in a row. But I think it'll be their most complete game since the break. Well, look, I thought they were better against the Rangers in a loss than they were against the Capitals in a win. It was comforting to hear Rod Brind'Amour say that after the game. He goes like, we didn't get back on it. We just won, basically.

And it's obviously good to get two points. And it'll be Ante Ranta tonight. It's been a long time since he's played.

It has. So it'd be nice for him to feel the puck early. He hasn't lost since November. And at the end of the day, that is all that matters, that he finds a way to win.

And I think that this is absolutely the right rotation this week. Anderson, who was excellent, especially after he gave up that stoppable Washington second goal. He shut the door and he was Carolina's best player in Washington. You know, he'll go in the outdoor game. Ante's father in law, I believe, is here, you know, still coming off of the dad's mentor's trip. And you want to get him in the mix. And so I like the fact that it's stacked up this week that Anderson Ranta, I would think Anderson. And the other thing, A.G., that's really cool is now Anderson can sit back. You know, he, dating back to when he was drafted by the Hurricanes, Cam Ward was really good to him in his first development camp, went out of his way to be good to Freddie Anderson. That's always left a lasting impression. So I'm thrilled for Freddie not starting tonight.

Probably will be able to get to take in and appreciate and consume the ceremony in a different way than if he was starting. And Ante in the net, all he's done is found a way to win. It's amazing that he has not lost in more than three months.

November 12th, the game at Colorado, was the last time Ante Ranta has lost a game in regulation. That is absolutely remarkable. As you are, I'll see you when your ceremony is over. Don't sweat too much.

Love, A.G. And as my mom says, and always tells me, horses sweat, people perspire. That is true. That is true. All right, man.

I'll see you in a bit. You know, it's true, actually. Horses do sweat.

I'll take your word for it. They do. They absolutely do sweat.

And they refuse to use deodorant, too, which is silly. All right, when we come back, I have a poll question up. And I made a mistake in the poll. Uh-oh.

I'm going to put you on the spot, Dennis Cox. Yes, I made a... I'm going to ask you where the mistake is. Okay. You know, like those puzzles, like which is different between these two pictures? Right?

Sometimes there's a sock hanging on a lampshade somewhere. Well, I'm going to ask you where the mistake is in the poll about the Panthers and quarterbacks. Next. All right, so I put up a poll today. We do this, which we're trying to get back to doing this every day, because they're fun. They're conversation starters. We just had a meeting with a cool conversation starter.

We don't have to bring it up, but I... I was there. You were there, right? Wasn't it a cool conversation? It was, actually.

Right? Like I found out today that Dennis works out with The Rock. Who knew? It happened once.

Who knew? Yep. So it would be on your resume. I should put it on there. Absolutely.

A workout partner of Dwayne Johnson. All right, so the poll question today. We have a fan... There you go. I always forget, by the way.

Always. Which quarterback plan do you prefer for the Carolina Panthers? Although I didn't put Carolina Panthers here. So you tell me what's missing here, Dennis. This is your assignment. Tell me where I screwed up. Choice number one. A, draft best quarterback at number nine. Choice B, trade for Lamar Jackson. Choice C, signed Derek Carr, draft QB. Choice four, give me Sam and Matt. What's missing from those four choices that really should have probably eliminated give me Sam and Matt? But my brain was obviously not working. So you said draft best quarterback at nine.

Right. Trade for Lamar Jackson. Signed Derek Carr, draft quarterback.

Draft quarterback. They're both hunks. Check please. I got nothing for you. That's all I have.

Well, as who is it here? Reed points out not even going to include a trade up in these options. So you failed. Okay.

I was thinking that that's what I was thinking, but I was like, is that part of okay? So honestly, trade up should be in place of Sam and Matt because there's zero chance that that's going to be the quarterback tandem. None. No chance. The backup quarterback tandem.

Right. Sam could be the backup quarterback. They might bring him back on a backup deal because it would be a Darnold here. So whoever they draft at nine doesn't have to play, right? So if it's Anthony Richardson, the quarterback of Florida, which almost every mock draft I have seen has the Panthers taking him. Even if they trade up, it has the Panthers taking him. And I'm not saying that that's a good pick or not.

You can count the times I have seen Anthony Richardson play quarterback on no hands. Okay. That means I've never seen it. I would, if you, you could be Anthony Richardson. Okay, maybe I am. You might be.

This might be. For my money, might as well. So it would be good to not have to play the quarterback, but I should have included a trade up because there is a very real possibility that this team will because they have so many draft picks. No, they don't that they are willing to trade up into the draft to get the apple of David Tepper's eye. So what about Jimmy G? Miss him on your pole.

I did miss him on the pole. I think the days of going after the Jimmy Garoppolo's of the world are over for this team. Jimmy Garoppolo. How would it be different than Derek Carr? If Jimmy, I think Derek Carr probably gives you a higher end of quarterback. I'm not in love with Derek Carr, by the way.

To me, he is a, he's a captain check down guy. He is a poor man's Kirk Cousins. But if Jimmy G were so good, then the 49ers would not have been trying to move away from him for so long. Ultimately, Garoppolo is nothing more than a game manager. I think car who's a little bit too cautious at times that might be able to be coached out of it. Well, I'm not advocating for Derek Carr, but that is what if you spend enough time reading about the quarterback carousel that's about to spin. It is a frequent mention for the Panthers, even though they had his brother that didn't work out. Oh, yeah. David Carr, Mr Mittens, because he wore gloves on both hands, which, okay, if you can do that, fine.

If you need to do that, fine. But I'm not a fan of of the choices here. Gosh, I might say give me Sam and Matt, to be honest. I would love to get Lamar Jackson, but you can't pay 50 million dollars a year for Lamar Jackson. And my fear is that Lamar Jackson is talking himself into a position where that's all he's going to play for. Maybe. Plus, think of all the draft hall you have to give up to get them. I don't think it would be as much as that. I mean, I don't I mean, I think it would be two number ones.

That's right. I think you'd have to give up to number ones to get Lamar Jackson and then some. I don't know.

I feel like there be and then some because there's so much money involved. I just I just don't think that there's going to be first of all, I don't think the Ravens. I don't know what's going to happen there. The Ravens blew this a while ago. But Lamar Jackson, he needs to be represented. He needs to be represented. The comparison to the Deshaun Watson contract, using that as a as this is the barometer. All right. Now, OK, now this is the standard.

We have to get to the standard. That's silly for this reason. The Cleveland Browns were not a destination at all. Deshaun Watson said, I don't want to go there. So he said that before all of that happened, he was never going to play in Cleveland. This is what Cleveland had to do to get the creepy quarterback. They had to.

That's not the standard. Watch what the next contracts look like for quarterbacks. Those those contracts will revert to what normal contracts are for a ton of money, but not all of it guaranteed. Nobody is going to guarantee another quarterback. Two hundred and thirty million dollars. Nobody.