With Williams finally aboard, Hurricanes can stop looking back and start looking forward
His sabbatical complete, Justin Williams doesn’t want to contemplate whether this is a cameo of a few months — “four ... February, March, April, May, June ... five months, hopefully,” he counted off on his fingers Wednesday — or merely the first scene of the next act of his career.
It’s clearly more likely the former at age 38, which is how both he and the Carolina Hurricanes should approach this. With Williams officially aboard, they now know the cap space they have to push forward and continue to improve their roster, not to mention the mental freedom of having his situation finally resolved and the talent upgrade he’ll bring beyond all that.
When he actually returns to the ice remains an open question but the uncertainty over his comeback that was clearly starting to weigh on a team that had lost five of seven before Tuesday night’s overtime win has now lifted. And since the imminence of his return was somewhat apparent Tuesday when he was wearing a Hurricanes hat in a suite and exchanging golf tips with owner Tom Dundon, that may to some degree explain the life the Hurricanes showed after falling behind two goals to the Philadelphia Flyers in the first nine minutes.
Lighting a fire
It may also explain, to some different degree, the standout performances from Warren Foegele and his fourth-linemates, Foegele and Brock McGinn and Jordan Martinook being among of a handful of players whose ice time will be threatened by Williams’ redebut, whenever that is. That competition, finally 13 NHL forwards for 12 spots, is perhaps the most salient element of Williams’ return, lighting a fire under not only those three but the slumping Nino Niederreiter as well.
There are some understandable concerns about the reintegration of Williams into the lineup and locker room of a team that is already performing at a high level, especially with Jordan Staal holding the captaincy Williams vacated last summer, but those are really a new variation on the old theme of familiarity breeding contempt.
If someone with Williams’ resume and reputation had just arrived by trade, there wouldn’t be any of those worries.
As long as Williams can perform at some reasonable fraction of the level he performed at last year, he’ll be an upgrade on the ice. And the understanding of leadership that made him such a good captain last season — and made the Ron Francis/Bill Peters decision to snub him a season previous such an obvious and glaring error — should enable Williams to function effectively as a lieutenant to Staal while still being Rod Brind’Amour’s primary conduit to the dressing room.
Room to improve
Williams probably won’t and shouldn’t be the last new arrival in this group, with his minimum-plus-bonuses contract preserving the 2020 salary-cap space the Hurricanes need to pursue upgrades at the trade deadline, now less than seven weeks away. The Hurricanes have the cushion to take on a $5 million contract right now, whether that’s a fourth defenseman to take some of the load off Jaccob Slavin, Dougie Hamilton and Brett Pesce or a new option in goal, where neither Petr Mrazek nor James Reimer has emerged as a first choice.
It isn’t quite as simple as that. The bonuses already due Andrei Svechnikov and Martin Necas in addition to any accruing to Williams will eat into the 2021 cap if the Hurricanes run out of room in 2020, something the Hurricanes would like to avoid even with Hurricanes legend Patrick Marleau’s $6.25 million coming off the books.
But with their forward situation now settled thanks to Williams’ long-anticipated but long-delayed return, they know the numbers and can turn their attention to making the upgrades that will give them the best chance of extending Williams’ encore into all the months he counted.
This story was originally published January 8, 2020 at 1:00 PM.
